Job summary
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT)/Saint Francis Hospice Romford (SFH) are seeking a Consultant in Palliative Medicine to support the
BHRUT hospital palliative care team (10 PAs), with option for 2 of the PAs to be in the community.
We seek someone with energy and passion, who enjoys the rich interface between hospital and community care.
The BHRUT Macmillan Specialist Palliative Care team (MSPCT) supports over 2000 patients a year at Queen's and King George Hospitals. The team contributes strongly to local and regional education and hosts Specialist Registrars. You will join CQC rated outstanding services at BHRUT, yet with opportunities ripe for service development and future growth.
The Redbridge Palliative Care Team is a busy community service supporting and promoting good end of life care at home/in care homes in Redbridge. A full-time end of life care facilitator is fully integrated into the wider CNS/therapies team. Care includes support of GPs and district nurses to build their knowledge, skills and confidence in providing palliative care.
Areas of special interest welcomed.
Outer NEL has much to offer, with excellent transport links to central London and attractive urban and rural residential options.
Applicants must be on the Specialist Palliative Care Register or within 6 months of CCT.
Please also get in touch if you are interested in future posts in outer NEL or have a CCT in a linked area with CPD in palliative care.
Main duties of the job
The postholder will provide specialist palliative care to patients in the acute hospital with the option of also working in the community setting, directly by providing clinical care for patients, and indirectly by supporting colleagues in their provision of care to patients with specialist palliative care needs, through clinical advice, education, and support with quality improvement initiatives. The postholder will be expected to develop expertise in an area of special interest relevant to the specialty, locality and regional strategy and to contribute to research development, with interest/experience in research desirable
About us
Under the leadership of our Chair, Jacqui Smith and Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive we provide care for the residents of three diverse London boroughs. More than half of our 7,500 strong workforce are from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and most live in Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge. We also provide healthcare services to people in south west Essex, and specialist neurosciences services to the whole of the county.
Our services include all the major specialties of large acute hospitals, operating from two main sites - King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen's Hospital in Romford. We also provide outpatient services at Brentwood Community Hospital, Barking Hospital, Loxford Polyclinic and Harold Wood Polyclinic.
As we recover from Covid-19, we're proud to be leading the way in reducing the time our patients wait to get the treatment they need. The pandemic provided the drive for our teams to innovate and change.
We know we have more work to do to improve waiting times for urgent and emergency care, and this will be one of the many benefits of our closer collaboration with Barts Health. Working with them and with all our partners across north east London, we will find a sustainable solution to enhance patient care.
We are particularly proud of our regional Neurosciences Centre; Radiotherapy Centre; Hyper Acute Stroke Unit; and dedicated breast care service at King George Hospital. We're also pleased to be part of the NEL Cancer Alliance.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Clinical and operational responsibilities
- To provide medical input for the BHRUT hospital multidisciplinary palliative care team, alongside the existing medical workforce.
- To work closely with other local specialist palliative care providers to ensure excellent service delivery across settings.
- To contribute to medical and other staff training and to service development and quality improvement alongside Consultant colleagues.
- To give medical advice and support to GPs, District Nurses, the Hospice Referrals Hub and other key community based partners in care who are managing complexity in the community as a contributor to safe hospital discharge planning.
With optional Community component:
- To provide medical input for the Redbridge Specialist Community multidisciplinary Palliative Care Team, alongside the existing medical workforce.
Clinical
- Medical input to inpatients and outpatients within BHRUT. Workload consists of face to face hospital patient contacts, including new and follow up patients in the wards or outpatient settings, patient telephone contacts and patient discussion in MDT meetings. The post-holder will be supporting a multidisciplinary team with around 50 patients on their books at any one time. The personal workload is expected to be around 4 complex patient reviews per day during DCC time, in addition to telephone advice to the CNS team, doctors and other healthcare professionals.
- Specialist palliative care input to BHRUT Cancer, Nutrition, and Critical Care MDT meetings.
- To provide palliative medicine telephone support or general advice to clinical colleagues in hospital teams.
With optional Community component:
- Medical input to home/care home based service users under the care of the Redbridge Community Specialist Palliative Care Team. Workload consists of face to face home visits, new or follow up, with focus on complexity and support of/joint visiting with the CNS team, and via patient telephone contacts and clinical discussion in MDT meetings. The multidisciplinary team will be supporting around 40 people on their books at any one time. Expectation is that the post holder will see up to 4 complex home visits/joint assessments in the day during DCC time, alongside giving clinical advice to CNSs/trainee doctors/GPs at the frontline of care.
And
- To be responsible for keeping accurate and full medical records, both paper and electronic.
Education
- Clinical supervision of hospital doctors (Registrars and Specialty Doctors), in conjunction with Consultant colleagues.
- To be involved in ongoing multidisciplinary teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level within BHRUT, including the multidisciplinary teaching meetings within the Palliative Care Team (equally relevant to optional Community component)
- Mentorship and support of medical, nurse and other visiting professionals to enhance their knowledge and skills (equally relevant to optional Community component).
- Collaborative contribution into local education programmes for hospital based (+ optional Redbridge based) and external partners in care, with collaboration with local providers and partners in provision of education to the wider locality.
- Clinical supervision of non-medical prescriber CNSs in training.
Audit and Research
- To participate in and fully support audit and quality improvement work within BHRUT (+ optionally into Redbridge community), leading to improved care for people with palliative care needs across all settings. This includes supporting the embedding of the OACC suite of outcome measures into clinical practice.
- To work with Trust, hospice, local and regional groups towards ensuring that relevant policies are written or adopted so that clinical palliative care is practised within the current evidence-base.
- To be an ambassador for audit and research.
- To mentor and support medical learners and the wider MDT to develop and deliver high standard quality improvement and audit work.
- To audit own practice as necessary for continued professional development
Management and Administration
- To work cooperatively with the existing consultants and leaders in this locality in the strategic planning of Specialist Palliative Care services.
- To attend relevant strategic and managerial forums within both BHRUT (and optionally in Redbridge) in conjunction with consultant colleagues to ensure appropriate team/medical team representation, as a shared responsibility alongside senior BHRUT palliative care colleagues and hospice senior colleagues, as a skilled representative and ambassador for palliative care.
- To attend other relevant specialty meetings as needed and able.
- To undertake the administrative duties usually expected of a consultant, including use of the IT systems in place to support patient care.
Office and workspace Information
- At Queens Hospital office space will be shared with the existing palliative care doctors, based in the Oncology/ Haematology zone. There is also office space at King George hospital shared with other members of the multidisciplinary team. There will be secretarial support based at Queens but covering both sites. A laptop computer will be provided.
- At Redbridge office space will be shared with the CNS team. Administrative support will be provided by the PA to the Redbridge team.
Mentorship and support
- The post-holder will be joining an established, experienced multidisciplinary team where a culture of supporting one another is prioritised by senior leaders and embedded within team functioning.
- The hospital and hospice are strongly supportive of mentorship and of external clinical supervision for Consultants. Guidance to identify support will be provided if needed.
- Within BHRUT the clinical lead for palliative care services is Heather Wright. She manages day to day issues, but specifically consultant management issues will be led by Dr. Jo Howard, Divisional Director Cancer and Clinical Support Services.
- Within Redbridge Dr. Corinna Midgley, Medical Director, Saint Francis Hospice will provide support/line management to the postholder.
Medical Administration
- The person appointed will be a member of the regional Consultant team.
- The postholder agrees their Job Plan annually and undergoes an NHS annual appraisal with a nominated BHRUT appraiser on behalf of the BHRUT Chief Executive.
- The job plan is inclusive of hospice community sessions, which will be shaped and developed with the hospice team. Annual NHS appraisal will bring together the postholders whole scope of practice, i.e. hospice and hospital.
- The Job Plan for this post will take into account the new Terms and Conditions Consultants (England) 2003. It will also reflect individual consultants special interests, current levels of activity and the need to distribute work fairly amongst colleagues to ensure the service responds to the needs of its users.
- The person appointed will be committed to the revalidation process, every 5 years, which is overseen by the Responsible Officer, BHRUT.
On call commitment
BHRUT Macmillan Team runs a 7 day a week 9-5 CNS face-to-face service.
Community palliative care services (Saint Francis Hospice and Redbridge) run a 7 day a week 9-5 CNS/Clinical Specialist face-to-face service.
The hospice inpatient unit admits daily, 9-5pm, with a 1st on call rota of trainees and specialty doctors, 24/7 (including weekends and bank holidays).
Out of Hours Consultant cover (advice/support by phone 5pm to 9am Mon-Friday, and at the weekend) is provided by the Saint Francis Hospice and BHRUT Consultants in their on-call rota, with Supportive Care UK (SCUK) supporting. The rota is currently a 1:5 week rota, Category B.
In exceptional circumstance the local Consultant on call would be required to come in to support a trainee with an inpatient unit crisis. This would be exceptional. Recompense would be as time off in lieu.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Clinical and operational responsibilities
- To provide medical input for the BHRUT hospital multidisciplinary palliative care team, alongside the existing medical workforce.
- To work closely with other local specialist palliative care providers to ensure excellent service delivery across settings.
- To contribute to medical and other staff training and to service development and quality improvement alongside Consultant colleagues.
- To give medical advice and support to GPs, District Nurses, the Hospice Referrals Hub and other key community based partners in care who are managing complexity in the community as a contributor to safe hospital discharge planning.
With optional Community component:
- To provide medical input for the Redbridge Specialist Community multidisciplinary Palliative Care Team, alongside the existing medical workforce.
Clinical
- Medical input to inpatients and outpatients within BHRUT. Workload consists of face to face hospital patient contacts, including new and follow up patients in the wards or outpatient settings, patient telephone contacts and patient discussion in MDT meetings. The post-holder will be supporting a multidisciplinary team with around 50 patients on their books at any one time. The personal workload is expected to be around 4 complex patient reviews per day during DCC time, in addition to telephone advice to the CNS team, doctors and other healthcare professionals.
- Specialist palliative care input to BHRUT Cancer, Nutrition, and Critical Care MDT meetings.
- To provide palliative medicine telephone support or general advice to clinical colleagues in hospital teams.
With optional Community component:
- Medical input to home/care home based service users under the care of the Redbridge Community Specialist Palliative Care Team. Workload consists of face to face home visits, new or follow up, with focus on complexity and support of/joint visiting with the CNS team, and via patient telephone contacts and clinical discussion in MDT meetings. The multidisciplinary team will be supporting around 40 people on their books at any one time. Expectation is that the post holder will see up to 4 complex home visits/joint assessments in the day during DCC time, alongside giving clinical advice to CNSs/trainee doctors/GPs at the frontline of care.
And
- To be responsible for keeping accurate and full medical records, both paper and electronic.
Education
- Clinical supervision of hospital doctors (Registrars and Specialty Doctors), in conjunction with Consultant colleagues.
- To be involved in ongoing multidisciplinary teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level within BHRUT, including the multidisciplinary teaching meetings within the Palliative Care Team (equally relevant to optional Community component)
- Mentorship and support of medical, nurse and other visiting professionals to enhance their knowledge and skills (equally relevant to optional Community component).
- Collaborative contribution into local education programmes for hospital based (+ optional Redbridge based) and external partners in care, with collaboration with local providers and partners in provision of education to the wider locality.
- Clinical supervision of non-medical prescriber CNSs in training.
Audit and Research
- To participate in and fully support audit and quality improvement work within BHRUT (+ optionally into Redbridge community), leading to improved care for people with palliative care needs across all settings. This includes supporting the embedding of the OACC suite of outcome measures into clinical practice.
- To work with Trust, hospice, local and regional groups towards ensuring that relevant policies are written or adopted so that clinical palliative care is practised within the current evidence-base.
- To be an ambassador for audit and research.
- To mentor and support medical learners and the wider MDT to develop and deliver high standard quality improvement and audit work.
- To audit own practice as necessary for continued professional development
Management and Administration
- To work cooperatively with the existing consultants and leaders in this locality in the strategic planning of Specialist Palliative Care services.
- To attend relevant strategic and managerial forums within both BHRUT (and optionally in Redbridge) in conjunction with consultant colleagues to ensure appropriate team/medical team representation, as a shared responsibility alongside senior BHRUT palliative care colleagues and hospice senior colleagues, as a skilled representative and ambassador for palliative care.
- To attend other relevant specialty meetings as needed and able.
- To undertake the administrative duties usually expected of a consultant, including use of the IT systems in place to support patient care.
Office and workspace Information
- At Queens Hospital office space will be shared with the existing palliative care doctors, based in the Oncology/ Haematology zone. There is also office space at King George hospital shared with other members of the multidisciplinary team. There will be secretarial support based at Queens but covering both sites. A laptop computer will be provided.
- At Redbridge office space will be shared with the CNS team. Administrative support will be provided by the PA to the Redbridge team.
Mentorship and support
- The post-holder will be joining an established, experienced multidisciplinary team where a culture of supporting one another is prioritised by senior leaders and embedded within team functioning.
- The hospital and hospice are strongly supportive of mentorship and of external clinical supervision for Consultants. Guidance to identify support will be provided if needed.
- Within BHRUT the clinical lead for palliative care services is Heather Wright. She manages day to day issues, but specifically consultant management issues will be led by Dr. Jo Howard, Divisional Director Cancer and Clinical Support Services.
- Within Redbridge Dr. Corinna Midgley, Medical Director, Saint Francis Hospice will provide support/line management to the postholder.
Medical Administration
- The person appointed will be a member of the regional Consultant team.
- The postholder agrees their Job Plan annually and undergoes an NHS annual appraisal with a nominated BHRUT appraiser on behalf of the BHRUT Chief Executive.
- The job plan is inclusive of hospice community sessions, which will be shaped and developed with the hospice team. Annual NHS appraisal will bring together the postholders whole scope of practice, i.e. hospice and hospital.
- The Job Plan for this post will take into account the new Terms and Conditions Consultants (England) 2003. It will also reflect individual consultants special interests, current levels of activity and the need to distribute work fairly amongst colleagues to ensure the service responds to the needs of its users.
- The person appointed will be committed to the revalidation process, every 5 years, which is overseen by the Responsible Officer, BHRUT.
On call commitment
BHRUT Macmillan Team runs a 7 day a week 9-5 CNS face-to-face service.
Community palliative care services (Saint Francis Hospice and Redbridge) run a 7 day a week 9-5 CNS/Clinical Specialist face-to-face service.
The hospice inpatient unit admits daily, 9-5pm, with a 1st on call rota of trainees and specialty doctors, 24/7 (including weekends and bank holidays).
Out of Hours Consultant cover (advice/support by phone 5pm to 9am Mon-Friday, and at the weekend) is provided by the Saint Francis Hospice and BHRUT Consultants in their on-call rota, with Supportive Care UK (SCUK) supporting. The rota is currently a 1:5 week rota, Category B.
In exceptional circumstance the local Consultant on call would be required to come in to support a trainee with an inpatient unit crisis. This would be exceptional. Recompense would be as time off in lieu.
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
- Full Registration with the General Medical Council
- Be on the specialist register for Palliative Medicine or be within six months of entry at the time of interview
- MRCP, MRCGP, FRCA or equivalent qualification
Desirable
- Leadership and Management Experience
- Further Degree
- Developed area of academic interest including publication
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
- Full Registration with the General Medical Council
- Be on the specialist register for Palliative Medicine or be within six months of entry at the time of interview
- MRCP, MRCGP, FRCA or equivalent qualification
Desirable
- Leadership and Management Experience
- Further Degree
- Developed area of academic interest including publication
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
