Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine

Job responsibilities

1. Role purpose

To provide senior medical and clinical leadership to support the continued delivery of Hospice care services and support to community based palliative care practitioners. The post-holder will contribute to the on-going development of specialist palliative care services, excellent clinical governance arrangements across The Myton Hospices and the development of educational and research initiatives.

2. Principal Duties of the Post

The Terms and conditions of employment for this role will mirror the standard NHS TCS terms for Consultant appointments

The following provides an outline of the main duties of this post. This list is not an exhaustive or exclusive list. The appointee to this post is required to:

Clinical:

Take Consultant responsibility for hospice inpatients up to 12 beds (for an 0.8 WTE role), split across both Coventry and Warwick sites. Inpatient workload will form the majority of the direct patient care activity, and will include some follow up with patients discharged from the IPUs into NHS Community Care-led teams

Provide expert advice and support regarding complex ethical and clinical decision making

Lead and contribute to the weekly Inpatient Unit (IPU) Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) Meeting which is chaired by a senior ward nurse and attended by all members of the MDT

Work collaboratively with other Myton Doctors to provide consultant advice, support and clinical expertise to the clinical team at Myton

Support the Myton Specialist and Specialty Doctors and Referrals Team to provide expert advice and guidance to health care professionals caring for patients with palliative and end of life care needs in Coventry and Warwickshire

Occasional Community/Outpatient support for clinics run or supported by Myton

Educational:

Participate in regular medical department meetings and education sessions

Provide teaching and clinical supervision to doctors working at Myton on rotation - Palliative Medicine Specialty Registrars and GP Specialty Doctors

Act as an Educational Supervisor for one Palliative Medicine Specialty Registrar

Maintain own continuing professional development according to the requirements of the Royal College of Physicians/the Royal College of General Practitioners. Myton supports the requirements for CPD and is committed to providing time and financial support for these activities

Contribute to the planning and delivery of undergraduate medical education in all aspects of palliative, end of life care, communication skills and ethics

Participate in undergraduate, postgraduate and multi-professional palliative care education programmes organised by Myton and the CASTLE Education Group

Lead on and/or participate in local Specialist Palliative Care education sessions

Support with the continuing professional development of Myton the Myton team, including nurses who are further developing their competencies in specialist palliative care, training clinical nurse practitioners and non-medical prescribers

Quality Improvement, Audit and Patient Safety:

Engage with monitoring of patient safety through the clinical governance assurance systems in place at Myton

Support with risk management and ongoing quality improvement initiatives

Take a lead role with the Myton audit programme supporting other staff with audit, actively participating in clinical audits. Participating in relevant national audits is also encouraged

Provide clinical leadership and guidance through the Myton Clinical Advisory Group

Contribute to the development, implementation and response to local and national policy and guidance

Be supportive of research and/or engage in research opportunities

Support Myton to further develop research links with academic centres and NHS Trust Research Leads/National Institute for Health Research/other West Midlands Hospices

Pursue special interests in aspects of palliative care in collaboration with colleagues locally which may also enable service improvements

Strategic:

Seek new and innovative opportunities for Myton

Participate and lead on local/regional/national initiatives as agreed within Myton

Contribute to developing and implementing The Myton Hospices Strategy

Provide strategic leadership within local network groups to support in the development of generalist and specialist palliative care services

Qualifications

Essential

• MRCP (UK) or (I) or MRCGP (UK) or (I) or FRCA, FRCR or equivalent.
• Full GMC Registration with entry on the Specialist Register in Palliative Medicine, or within 6 months of entering the Specialist Register (CCT or CESR)

Desirable

• PhD, MD, MSc, MA or Diploma in Palliative Medicine

Experience

Essential

• Clinical experience in Palliative Medicine, particularly in a wide range of settings
• Experience in all aspects of clinical quality and safety improvement work

Desirable

• Evidence of a special interest in an area of specialist palliative medicine

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Ability to work as an effective member of a multidisciplinary team
• Excellent communication skills
• Demonstrable leadership skills
• A patient-centred approach to clinical practice
• Understanding of the principles and applications of clinical research
• Experience of and willingness to participate in undergraduate teaching and post graduate training
• Understanding of principles of Management of Hospice and Palliative Care Services
• Knowledge and experience of IT & Data Governance as applied to palliative care

Desirable

• Evidence of original research
• Teaching qualification
• Management training or qualification

Other

Essential

• Ability to adapt style and method of communication to varied groups of people
• Ability to work under pressure
• Agreement with and commitment to the principle of equal opportunities
• Commitment to Continuing Professional Development
• Willing to live within 1 hour travel distance of The Myton Hospice Inpatient Units

Desirable

• Experience in clinical guideline development
• Experience of service development

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).