Care of The Elderly Consultant

The post will be flexibly time-tabled to meet the demands of the service and the timing of sessions may change as the service develops.
A typical week (Whole Time Equivalent) would consist of 10 Programmed Activities (PA’s), including a minimum allocation of 1.5 SPA’s for Supporting Professional Activities.
Clinical commitments would typically include responsibility for patients in one of our inpatient areas and beyond that we are keen for our consultants to develop services within their interests and the services that we run.
On call commitments are out of hours only and will be working onto our Acute Frailty Admissions ward at NSECH with remote support for our other wards across the trust.
Additional SPA’s will be available dependent upon service need. There are additional PA’s available for Education and Clinical supervision with 0.25 for first trainee and 0.125 for each subsequent trainee thereafter.
The post includes a formal role in medical undergraduate education and the postholder will be accountable to the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education (Newcastle University) for their educational role.
Manage personal workload in such a way to ensure where possible service contract levels are achieved. Participate in the provision of cover on a shared basis with colleagues for periods of annual, sickness and study leave, except for prolonged absence where locum cover may be necessary.
Provide continuing clinical responsibility for patients under his/her care and assume responsibility for and facilitate contact from members of staff with delegated duties for personally accountable patient care.
Maintain an awareness and commitment to organisational priorities and ensure these are communicated effectively to colleagues and staff. Engage constructive debates about organisational issues through a willingness to interact positively with managers - showing mutual respect to ensure a similar level of respect in turn.
Effectively balance loyalty to the service and to the organisation through corporate behaviours and have an ability to anticipate change in current political climates showing an awareness of where the team sits in the bigger picture.
Understand the wider health economy and the implications for the Trust whilst working within organisational constraints with willingness to compromise and share resources.
Outpatient care across all our hospitals with consultant-led beds at The Northumbria, Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Wansbeck General Hospitals and our Community Hospitals. We are committed to developing patient pathways beyond the traditional secondary care inpatient/outpatient model to better meet the needs of frail patients in our communities. This is aligned with the trust strategy to ensuing we provide the best care for our local people, in the right place, whatever the stage of a person’s life. Our Acute service is based at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency care Hospital (NSECH), with 19 inpatient beds on our dedicated Admissions Ward for patients presenting to ED either directly or via their GP, and a peripatetic Frailty Assessment Service (FAS), which is consultant-led with Nurse Practitioner and therapist support, providing assessment of frail patients in ED itself, with the aim of initiating CGA early in the patient journey and facilitating early direct move to the most appropriate place for ongoing care; whether that be their home or one of our inpatient facilities. More recently we have opened an Elderly Assessment Unit (EAU) in Wansbeck Hospital with aims to provide same or next day assessment to frail patients in response to acute deterioration. This aligns with the trust strategy to develop credible alternatives to emergency department attendance and receives referrals directly from the ambulance service as well as GPs.
Our Frailty Virtual Ward is well established with plans to develop further. EAU, virtual frailty ward and the frailty assessment service in ED links with other community initiatives such as 2-hour urgent response. Our ambition is to open another EAU at North Tyneside Hospital in the future to help further build the vision of responsive frailty services close to patients. In Hexham we also run a 5/7 Elderly Assessment Service (EAC) which sees new (and some review) patients direct via GP referral for patients in the West of the region.
We have subacute wards at Hexham, Wansbeck, and North Tyneside General Hospitals, providing ongoing care for those felt to still need significant medical input, therapy and discharge planning following initial assessment at NSECH. In addition, our Community Hospital wards provide locally based inpatient rehabilitation and palliative care for those requiring a longer inpatient stay.
We have geriatrician input into intermediate care facilities in the North Tyneside areas at North Tyneside Intermediate Care unit and Princes Court with shared care with local GPs and Community re-ablement and rehabilitation teams.
Our inpatient liaison servi