Consultant in Palliative Medicine

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Department

Palliative Medicine is part of the Directorate of Corporate Services

Currently the Palliative Medicine Team are employed by The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust but are funded via a Service Level Agreement with Rotherham Hospice. Funding for posts is from Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust and Rotherham Hospice and the service specification for Palliative Medicine includes providing services across hospice inpatient, outpatient, community and Day Hospice and in Rotherham Hospital.

Palliative Medicine provides medical support to the Rotherham Hospice in-patient unit, the Hospice at Home Team and provides a community medical service in patients homes and provides medical leadership to the hospital supportive care team (which encompasses palliative and end of life care within Rotherham Hospital.

Rotherham Hospice

Rotherham Hospice is an independent hospice charity located about 1 mile from Rotherham General Hospital.

It has 14 inpatient beds, a Day Hospice and a Community team comprising of Clinical Nurse Specialists, Staff Nurses, Occupational therapists and Physiotherapists. It also has a Hospice at Home team that are available 24 hours a day. The hospice also provides counselling and bereavement services for adults and children.

Hospital Supportive Care Team

There is a Lead Nurse for the Supportive Care Team and End of Life Care, who leads the Supportive Care Team that includes Palliative care, Acute Oncology and Cancer of Unknown Primary.

There are four Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS), three Acute Oncology CNS and a CNS for Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP). The service is run 7 days a week 8am-6pm.

The Post

The successful candidate will participate in clinical work in Palliative Medicine across Rotherham Hospice, community and hospital. They will have an office at Rotherham Hospital, with shared secretarial support for the Palliative Medicine Team and access to office space at Rotherham Hospice and admin support, with associated IT, PC and lap top, with network access, to enable patient records access (hospice, hospital and community) off site.

The successful applicants will be provided with supported induction into the NHS and the Trust and become a part of the clinical teams, where they will also be supported with their learning and personal development. A full hospice induction will also be provided.

Medical Lead for Hospital and interest in Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP)

The clinical responsibilities include working with the Hospital Supportive Care Team, alongside the rest of the medical team, to conduct assessments and reviews of patients with complex palliative care needs in hospital.

The successful applicant with be the Medical Lead for the Hospital Multi-Disciplinary Team.

All three consultants work together to provide the service across Rotherham and therefore provide cross cover at times of annual leave.

The long-term plan is for the consultants to slowly rotate through all settings (hospital, hospice, community and clinic).

The Hospital Palliative Medicine team conducted over 700 patient assessments in 2023-24, which included UECC and Woodlands Psychiatric Hospital (in the grounds of Rotherham Hospital).

The post holder will supervise the hospital specialty doctors and be clinical supervisor to the Specialist Registrar

The post holder will lead on education delivery and strategy to increase educational delivery and effectiveness of this on improving palliative and end of life care for the population of Rotherham.

The successful applicant will participate in the development of the Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP) Service and CUP clinic, alongside the Lead for CUP, Dr Vicky Athey, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine and Lead for Cancer Services. They will be part of the Cancer of Unknown Primary MDT, will help set up the Palliative Medicine service within CUP and will work with the CUP Nurse Specialist.

General

1.The Consultants will, under the direction of the Clinical Lead and the Hospice Director of Clinical Services, be responsible for providing medical care and/or specialist advice for

in-patients

patients at home (including care homes), in the Day Hospice or attending as out-patients

hospital patients

There are specific responsibilities as CUP Lead for Palliative Medicine, with associated clinic and MDT meeting.

2.The Consultants will contribute to the weekend medical rota comprising weekend ward round cover of 1:6-7 and assessment and review of urgent patients in Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust or at home. The weekend hours are Saturday and Sunday 9am to 6pm (i.e. 18 hours every 6-7 weeks). You may also be required to work up to 7pm on one day of the working week.

3.On call overnight commitments and it currently includes commitments to the first on call rota for the hospice inpatient unit a 1 in 7. This is 5pm to 9am and this is mainly by phone with 1-2 calls per month, with a very low risk of having to return to site to review a deteriorating patient, which to date has been less than once per year. There is commitment to the regional (Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster and Bassetlaw) Consultant rota, currently a 1 in 7, which is for a week at a time, with a commitment to telephone advice for other health care professionals only. There is no visiting commitment, calls average 1-2 per week. The two on calls run mostly concurrently, so the maximum on call commitment is 1 in 6-7.

4.The consultant may be responsible for the training and supervision of postgraduates and undergraduates and may be expected as part of your SPA allocation to devote time to this activity on a regular basis. In addition, you will be expected to ensure that junior staff receive adequate support and advice and where necessary contribute to the supervision and teaching of GP trainees and specialist registrar.

5.The consultant will, under the direction of the clinical lead, contribute to regular clinical and/or service audit. Multidisciplinary audit is performed across the service in all areas i.e. in-patient, Day Hospice and community service, as well as at TRFT.

6.The consultant, if you have a research interest, will under the direction of the clinical lead, be encouraged to contribute to research approved by the relevant Ethics Committee.

7.Regular discussion with the clinical lead will ensure that the job plan is up-to-date.

8.The appointee will be expected to provide cover for absent colleagues during periods of annual leave, professional and sick leave. In exceptional unforeseen circumstances the post holder may have to perform additional duties to ensure the safe running of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Service where such duties take place outside your normal contracted duties, the appointee will either receive an equivalent off duty period or will be remunerated appropriately.

9.To ensure good medical practice is maintained, the consultant will be given every opportunity to attend continuing professional development activities, with ability to apply for study leave and pay.

10.Medical staff are encouraged to contribute to the education programmes provided by the Hospice/TRFT for other health care professionals. The medical team also provide informal education, which is an integral part of the advisory components of the service, and to support individuals on placements e.g. medical students, General Practitioners, nurses etc.

This job description is not intended as an indication of the full and detailed range of duties that may be undertaken by the post holder and will be reviewed and developed to reflect the changing needs of the service. Other duties required that are commensurate to the grade of the post may be requested from time to time.

Responsibilities will be reviewed regularly with the post holder and on an annual basis as part of the appraisal process.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Full registration and a licence to practise with the GMC.
• Please provide your GMC registration number
• Eligible to be included on the Specialist register or CCT expected within 6 months of interview date
• MRCP and/or MRCGP

Desirable

• Post Graduate Qualification

Experience

Essential

• Four years supervised higher training in Palliative Medicine or equivalent
• Ability to take full and independent responsibility for clinical care of patients
• High level of communications skills

Desirable

• Broad range of experience of palliative care in all settings

Research and Audit

Essential

• Evidence of audit and the implementation of change following the audit

Desirable

• Relevant research published in peer review journal
• Evidence of involvement in research

Ability and Skills

Essential

• Be able to formulate evidence based, individualised, patient management plans across care settings
• Understand the disease trajectories in malignant and non-malignant and long term and reversible conditions
• Advising clinicians in ethical decision making including withdrawal and withholding of treatments and decisions as relate to care at the end of life

Education and Teaching

Essential

• Proven ability in delivery of education and training, a special interest in this area

Desirable

• Involvement in Education Strategy delivery

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

Employer details

Employer name

The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Rotherham Nhs Foundation Trust

Moorgate Road

Rotherham

South Yorkshire

S60 2UD

Employer's website

https://www.therotherhamft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)