Deputy Medical Director

CCS and NCH&C are merging into a new merged organisation on 1 st April 2026. This position is a newly created secondment role for 1 year for a Deputy Medical Director with a focus on Norfolk Adult Care. It will involve oversight of inpatient beds, Urgent Care, and working with our Community teams to provide great care.

Are you an experienced Medical Leader ready to take that step into a Deputy role with all the knowledge and experience you have acquired? Do you have experience of Acute and Urgent Adult Care and want to bring that experience into the Community setting to help us facilitate the Darzi shift of Care into the Community? If so, then come and speak with us about this position and consider joining us.

"Should we receive a high number of applications we reserve the right to close this vacancy at any point after 10 th October.

The Deputy Medical Director will support the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in the overall strategic development and day to day running of high quality and safe Adult patient care, mainly focused on the Norfolk provision, but there will be some cross working within the Group.

They will provide oversight and guidance to Medical and Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACP's), staff and their Leads, providing support, troubleshooting where necessary and providing senior clinical advice where required.

They will be responsible for overseeing medical job planning process across the Group and performance delivery as part of the annual cycle.

In conjunction with the CMO, and working with Senior Operational, Allied Health Professional (AHP), and Nursing colleagues, they will support the design and development of clinical pathways with system partners with specific responsibility for inpatient care, Urgent Community Response (UCR) growth, and increase the opportunities for admission avoidance across Norfolk and Waveney.

They will deputise for the CMO at local, regional and national meetings as requested, ensuring the organisation and profession is represented operationally and strategically. They will be responsible for deputising at Board meetings as required, developing and presenting papers, ensuring local and national issues that impact on the organisation are raised and addressed.

The postholder will participate in the Trust Strategic on-call rota.

Find out more about working for our organisation here:

Please note, the selection processes at Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust are in place to ensure we recruit candidates with the right values and skills, please be advised that the use of AI in applications are monitored. We remain watchful of candidates who misuse these tools to generate an application that doesn't accurately reflect their skills.

1) Clinical Leadership responsibilities.

1.1. With the Clinical Director, to have oversight of all inpatient units across Norfolk, some of which will require more involvement and others will need less.

1.2. To work closely with the Clinical Director and ACP Lead to ensure effective day to day management and oversight of Medical and ACP provision within UCR and the Intermediate Care Directorate, dealing with or effectively delegating operational critical issues as they arise.

1.3. To provide clinical leadership of complex, highly specialised or challenging clinical cases, ensuring others learn and gain from their experience and clinical judgment.

1.4. Working with Directors, AHP and Nursing leaders, ensure that patients accessing UCR and Intermediate care services do so in a safe, effective and timely manner, including appropriate discharge.

1.5. To provide ward rounds weekly in two of the Intermediate Care wards.

1.6. To ensure that operational plans are understood with medical and ACP teams and that high standards of patient care are always delivered.

1.7. To work with Intermediate and UCR leads and System Partners in the creation of plans to support surge activity such as "Winter planning".

1.8. To develop pathways from our UCR and Intermediate Care areas into the Acute providers, including Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC), and Emergency Departments (EDs) to provide a better experience for our patients and their care.

1.9. To work with the Director of Service and Finance team to ensure budgets pertaining to intermediate care beds and UCR are appropriate and effective.

1.10. To work with System Partners to develop pathways for patient care to provide seamless and great care for patients, and to facilitate admission avoidance to the Acute providers where possible.

2) Clinical Governance

2.1 Lead, with the CMO and senior Nursing and AHP leadership, in matters pertaining to Quality and Safety for patients including attending Quality Committee meetings, supporting the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and other relevant meetings.

2.2 Work with the CMO to lead on clinical governance matters involving Doctors and ACPs.

2.3 Support the CMO and Chief Nursing Officer in the delivery of the Health and Care Strategy, ensuring that the necessary systems and processes are in place to deliver improved effectiveness.

2.4 Be responsible, with the Deputy Chief Nurses, for internal Quality Improvement (QI) processes, this will include the implementation and monitoring of the Trust's Quality Strategy, related Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and all quality governance arrangements. To co-chair the Quality Improvement Group.

2.5 To regularly attend the Group-wide Learning from Deaths meetings.

2.6 The post holder will work as a senior member of the Corporate Medical and Quality team, leading corporate functions across the organisation that sit as part of the Chief Medical Officer portfolio as well as local and national projects to support the Trust's vision, mission and values.

2.7 To make sure that safety, quality and patient experience are properly reflected in performance management processes and in the review of the performance of individual members of staff.

2.8 To work with the Director of Service for Norfolk Adults to ensure that complaints relating to care provided by Doctors or ACPs within UCR and Intermediate Care services are managed in a timely way.

2.9 To use all appropriate means to ensure that patients are actively consulted on current service delivery and future plans.

2.10 Working with senior operational and clinical leaders, to investigate any Serious Incidents (SIs) and ensure the implementation of action points and learning emerging from any reports.

2.11 Ensure that Doctors and ACPs are engaged in delivering effective reviews to encourage effective admission and discharge to promote flow within the system. To identify and provide support to colleagues who are performing at variance from the norms, regarding safe and effective admission and discharge.

2.12 With the Senior Nursing and AHP leadership, to lead the Trust's preparation for regulatory visits and inspections – ensuring there are robust systems and processes in place to capture risks, identify good practices and report/ monitor outcomes.

2.13 To develop robust partnership and relationships with internal and external stakeholders across the systems in which the Trust delivers clinical services.

2.14 To contribute to systems working in each of the evolving Integrated Care Systems, particularly around the development of clinical governance as guided by the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nurse.

2.15 To lead programmes of work to reduce unwarranted variation in clinical practice.

2.16 With senior Nursing and AHP Leadership, to lead the management, reporting and learning lessons processes from SIs, PSIRF, complaints and patient feedback. Ensuring there is a strategic focus on learning and dissemination of lessons.

2.17 To lead strategic planning activities with all services to develop appropriate and measurable patient outcomes.

3) People leadership

3.1 Alongside the CMO, to provide professional leadership to the Doctors and ACP Leads within the Norfolk Adults Directorate.

3.2 To be an integral member of the Norfolk Adults Directorate, working closely with their leadership team.

3.3 To lead on communications for Doctors and ACPs within the directorate, ensuring that they are regularly briefed on operational and organisational changes and that they can contribute their views to the development of divisional plans.

3.4 To set a personal example in articulating, role modelling and delivering a performance management culture within the directorate, with an emphasis on safe, effective and timely operational performance, and to articulate the Trust's values.

3.5 Lead the timely completion of the annual job planning process across the Group, ahead of CMO review. Ensure the teams produce job plans in collaboration with operational colleagues.

3.6 Undertake an annual, Lead ACP appraisal with the Operational Director, and support these leads with advice regarding ACP appraisal concerns.

3.7 To champion transformation projects to support quality, safety and efficiency within the directorate.

3.8 To oversee the recruitment of staff. Working with senior leaders within the directorate, develop and support appropriate recruitment and retention strategies along with a talent pipeline for teams.

3.9 To promote professionalism and challenge poor practice.

3.10 To support professional conduct and capability issues as well as any statutory requirements relating to the medical workforce in partnership with the CMO.

3.11 Approver for timesheets and mileage claims, where necessary.

3.12 Champion and develop our relationships with Primary Care and medical system leaders.

4) Education, Training and Research

4.1 Working with the Director of Education, to provide oversight of educational planning, guidance and support to Doctors and ACPs. Support Doctors and ACPs in their continuing education and professional development.

4.2 Oversee and ensure the quality of training and placement provision across the group for GP trainees meets the required NHSE standards and support the provision of experiential training to all clinical students as required .

4.3 Maintain and participate in own continuing education and professional development.

5) Audit, research and development

5.1 Work with the Research leads and CMO to develop research, quality improvement and audit programmes to ensure all quality requirements are met, including evidenced learning.

5.2 Identify any relevant research opportunities for clinicians with a view to improving patient experience and quality of services.

5.3 Ensure that research evidence is used to underpin inpatient policies and practice as appropriate.

5.4 Contribute to research governance within the Trust and to develop support for the involvement of teams in appropriate research.

This job description is not exhaustive and may be amended from time to time in consultation with the post holder. The post holder will be required to undertake any other duties as may be required for the effective performance of the post.