Trust Grade Orthogeriatric Doctor

Job summary

This is a full time, ward-based position, without on-call or weekend commitment for a Trust Middle-grade Doctor in Orthogeriatrics to work within the Trauma and Orthopaedic service at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.

This doctor will work under the supervision of the Orthogeriatric and Orthopaedic Consultants to provide specialist medical input to all silver trauma and fragility fractures, as well as those geriatric patients undergoing elective surgery.

The T&O department at the RBH is a busy service, the trauma service operates 365 days a year and manages all aspects of musculoskeletal trauma. Whilst this does include around 480-500 fragility proximal femoral fractures each year, these are nursed separately on our dedicated, medical led, fractured neck of femur ward. Instead, with an ever-aging population, the service is seeing an increasing proportion of polycomorbid and medically complex silver trauma patients admitted to our 30-bed, 2 theatre, trauma unit with a range of fragility fractures. It is this cohort of patients for which the successful applicant will primarily be responsible for.

The successful applicant will be based on the trauma ward and will provide oversight of the preoperative assessment and postoperative medical care for all fragility fracture patients over the age of 65. This role will be supported by 3 other ward-based trainees (Two F1s and an F2) and a dedicated specialist therapy team to help patients achieve their functional independence.

Main duties of the job

The ethos of the trauma unit is holistic, patient centred care focussing on comprehensive assessment, appropriate timely surgical intervention, and early return to function achieved through multi-disciplinary team working. The successful candidate will be involved in both the acute medical care and the discharge planning process of all of the patients on the unit. The post holder will share clinical responsibilities with the ward team to:

• Optimise patients pre-operatively including liaising with the surgical, anaesthetic, and medical teams.
• Perform post-operative reviews to identify, manage, and escalate/refer medical complications where appropriate.
• Attend daily MDT board rounds and clinical ward rounds with a focus on ensuring continuity of care and patient flow.
• Work alongside the therapists to support patients in achieving their rehabilitation goals.
• Organise 'best interest meetings' with families of patients with cognitive impairment to decide on discharge destinations.
• Consider ongoing management of osteoporosis with consultant support.
• Identify patients medical fit for discharge.
• Support more junior members of the team on the ward in all aspects of medical perioperative care.

The Trust is proactive in the development of quality improvement work, and it is anticipated that the successful candidate would take an active role in projects within the service.

About us

The Royal Berkshire Hospital achieved Foundation Trust status on 1st June 2006. It was the first Foundation Trust in the South Central Strategic Health Authority. The Trust has a successful track record of delivering high quality acute medical and surgical services for 500,000 patients across West Berkshire, an area extending from Newbury in the west to Henley-on-Thames in the east, and including Wokingham and parts of Hampshire to the south and parts of Oxfordshire to the north. The Trust is one of the largest general hospital Trusts in the country and is Reading's biggest employer.

The hospital provides all those services normally associated with a very large District General Hospital. The hospital provides services on a single site for all the major specialities including Accident and Emergency, Trauma and Orthopaedics, Intensive Care, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Genitourinary Medicine, Ophthalmology, ENT, Maxillo-Facial surgery, paediatrics (including a NICU), general medicine (including all major medical specialities including CCU, Renal Unit, ITU and gastroenterology), radiotherapy and oncology, and all the general surgical specialities.

This post will sit across Planned Care (Trauma and Orthopaedics) and Networked Care (Geriatrics).

Employer details

Employer name

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Royal Berkshire Hospital

London Road

Reading

RG1 5AN

Employer's website

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

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Employer details

Employer name

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Royal Berkshire Hospital

London Road

Reading

RG1 5AN

Employer's website

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

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