Locum Consultant in Geriatrics & General Medicine

Job responsibilities

The Department of Ageing and Health is seeking to recruit a new consultant to join a dynamic, enthusiastic and forward thinking team of highly motivated and dedicated geriatricians.

The post has been established to support a growing need for geriatricians within several key areas of the work at the trust:

- In the acute medical pathway (including the front door service on the emergency floor, in the medical outreach service, and on our specialist wards for older people)

- In the community working with our primary care colleagues in delivering locality based geriatric medicine (including work within rehabilitation units, care homes and with the GSTT@home service)

This is an exciting time to join the department. The acute medical pathway is undergoing radical change to ensure a consultant led service is delivered 7 days a week during extended day hours and 365 days a year. The department of Ageing and Health contributes to this by providing a front door service 7 days a week within our Acute Older Persons Unit (AOPU) which is co-located with the emergency floor. Geriatricians also participate in the acute GIM emergency floor rota and lead firms on general medicine wards and in the older persons unit.

Similarly there have been exciting new developments in the range of community services. The acute trust is merged with therapies, community services and palliative care to form the Integrated Care Strategic Business Unit, aligning financial support and management to clinical priorities. This has allowed development of the GSTT@home team, delivering acute medical care to those that do not require hospital admission. Furthermore, the department is committed to supporting local care home residents and provides bespoke support to care homes across Lambeth and Southwark.

The post includes opportunities to work across these services and the job plans may include sessions in any of the above, depending on applicant preference and day to day negotiated service requirements.

The wide reaching footprint of Ageing and Health also includes the award winning GOLD service for oncology patients, the POPS service providing CGA based approach to emergency and elective surgical patients and a comprehensive range of outpatient services.

All posts include working alongside multidisciplinary teams to develop and deliver patient centred services. In all roles, the successful candidates will be expected to be intellectually flexible and able to look beyond existing structures, ways of working and traditional care boundaries in order to produce more effective and innovative service delivery. The post-holder will need to adapt quickly to new situations and provide high level clinical care to complex patients both at home, in a variety of community settings and within Guys and St Thomas Hospitals. All consultants in the department are expected to share out-of-hours rotas. The post-holder will be expected to take an active role in in the teaching programmes of the department.

As an organisation, we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This includes asking certain groups of staff to work more flexibly so that we can offer services to patients in the evenings and at weekends. We regard this flexibility as essential if we are to continue to provide first class patient care in the future. As a result, any offer of employment to a consultant post will be subject to you agreeing to work a new more flexible pattern of working in the future if required and in accordance with the provisions of the new Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust consultant contract.

Professional Qualifications

Essential

• Full GMC Registration with entry on the Specialist Register
• CCT in General Internal Medicine (GIM) with entry on the Specialist Register or within 6 months of CCST.

Desirable

• Experience as an NHS consultant (locum/acting up or substantive)

Clinical Experience

Essential

• Comprehensive clinical experience in General Medicine
• Comprehensive clinical experience in Geriatric Medicine.

Desirable

• Previous experience in ED or a front door service for older adults.
• Experience in leading own clinics

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Ability to work as an effective member of a multidisciplinary team.
• Able to change and adapt, respond to changing circumstances and to cope with setbacks or pressure.
• Communication: Ability to communicate with clarity and intelligently in written and spoken English; ability to build rapport, listen, persuade/ negotiate.
• Accountability: Ability to take responsibility, lead, make decisions and exert appropriate authority.
• Interpersonal Skills: Empathy, understanding, listening skills, patience and ability to work co-operatively with others.

Desirable

• Knowledge & skills in CGA in inpatients and outpatients
• Evidence of initiative and leadership skills
• Previous community experience

Teaching

Essential

• Experience of delivery of undergraduate teaching and postgraduate training

Desirable

• Teaching qualification. Advanced teaching experience (e.g. organising training days, involvement in regional or national teaching)

Audit, Quality Improvement & Research:

Essential

• Understanding of the principles of audit and quality improvement in clinical practice
• Understanding of the principles and applications of clinical research in clinical practice

Desirable

• Ability to carry out audit and/or quality improvement work
• Evidence of original research and/or an MD or PhD.
• Ability to conduct & evaluate own projects successfully

Other

Essential

• Evidence of understanding of and adherence to the principles of Good Medical Practice set out by the General Medical Council.
• Evidence of contribution to effective clinical risk management.

Desirable

• Appraisal training. Evidence of contributing to quality improvements programmes for older adults

Management skills

Essential

• Evidence of understanding of the role of clinical management

Desirable

• Experience in clinical guideline development.
• Staff Management: Experience of performance management, developing and motivating staff.
• Management training or qualification.
• Evidence of leadership in the development of clinical services.
• Finance: Knowledge of finance and budgets.

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).