Consultant - Rheumatology

Job summary

Working Full time : 10 Sessions per week

We are looking to recruit a Substantive Consultant for Rheumatology and we are open to incorporating any specialist interests and developed skills within the job plan. The successful candidate will be a full time appointment working in Rheumatology, and will lead as we integrate with the SDEC team while integrating within the team of existing consultants as we continue to modernise and provide a high quality Rheumatology service in a spirit of collaborative working.

We have a growing department with a dynamic and flexible team of enthusiastic consultants and specialist practitioners. We have a well-established Early Arthritis Clinic, Transitional Adolescent Clinic and sub-speciality clinics. We are exploring new models of working with our colleagues on the front line with the national roll out of Same Day Emergency Services (SDEC) and we have a well-established and well supported portfolio of research both in terms of commercial and non-commercial studies. We would welcome forward thinking colleagues with an interest in Rheumatology and General Medicine to join us at this time. As a department we have a culture of continuous improvement and innovation in practice to deliver optimal care to our patient population.

Applicants should ideally be on the GMC Specialist Register for Rheumatology or be within six months of their CCT date at interview.

Main duties of the job

The appointee will join the team pro-rata to be responsible for the care of:-

o Mixed pool of patient referrals from the community.

o Mixed pool of patient referred across specialities both urgent and routine.

The appointee will lead on the care of:-

o Admission prevention via collaboration with the SDEC and mixed pool of patient referred by the Emergency Medicine Department

o Additional specialist interest considerations are welcome

About us

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust provides services to West Cheshire and to Welsh patients covered by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership. Its services are provided from three locations:

o The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 438 general and acute beds.o Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 56 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility.o Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.

The Trust employs over 6258 staff (headcount) which includes temporary bank staff and provides acute emergency and elective services, primary care direct access services and obstetric services to a population of approximately 407,000. This includes 357,000 residents in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire which has a population of approximately 50,000.

The Trust is a busy district general hospital and in 2022/2023, there were more than 503,342 patient attendances (inpatient, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery. This is an increase of nearly 10,000 compared to the previous year when there were 494,387 patient attendances.