consultant in general paediatrics

Job summary

Evelina London is seeking a 6PA consultant paediatrician, to work embedded within the paediatric spinal service, to lead on the development of robust, holistic pre-operative medical support for complex children undergoing spinal surgery.

The paediatric spinal service at Evelina is expanding. The majority of children and young people undergoing surgery are medically complex. The postholder will work closely with the established spinal team in developing the service to ensure individualised, holistic and high quality care. The candidate will provide medical input to the current pre-assessment pathway and lead on pre-operative MDT meetings. The appointed candidate would lead on the developments of pathways and guidelines and deliver education, training and support to members of the spinal multi-disciplinary team.

The postholder will join the general paediatric service who will provide oversight of the care they provide and ensure professional development and appraisal and will contribute to the delivery of general paediatric care. They will also work closely with the general paediatricians and other members of the MDT who make up the Evelina Compass Team, who will provide proactive medical input for medically complex post-operative spinal patients.

The successful candidate would work across the Medical and Surgical Directorates in Evelina London and will work closely with the Head of Service for Paediatric Spine and Lead Spine Anaesthetist in the development of the service.

Main duties of the job

Role includes:

Development of paediatric peri-operative spinal service Targeted pre-operative holistic medical review alongside anaesthetic colleagues and other specialist teams as part of existing pre-assessment pathway Active involvement in discussion and decision making as to whether surgery is in best interests of child and family Specialist medical input into the optimisation of patients medically pre-surgery Active participation in Spinal MDT meetings Leading on the development of peri-operative guidelines, education and training Providing general paediatric services to the Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The appointed candidate would also be expected to also contribute to other areas such as:

High dependency care and patient safety Education and training Research Quality improvement and audit Clinical and educational supervision

About us

Caring for more than 95,000 babies, children and young people each year, Evelina London Children's Healthcare provides comprehensive health services from before birth, throughout childhood and into adult life. ELCH is part of Guys and St Thomas' Foundation Trust which is among the UK's busiest and most successful NHS foundation Trusts. The Evelina London Children's Hospital provide a large range of local hospital and community services for children in South London, Lambeth and Southwark, as well as an almost comprehensive range of specialist services for children with rare and complex conditions from across South London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

The General Paediatric department provides a wide range of healthcare services to local children through inpatient and outpatient treatment. Our patients reflect the diverse community living locally, and we see and manage a range of common and rarer conditions. We also manage many cases from the South East England catchment area which have been retrieved to PICU and then come under the care of the general paediatricians. These children often have complex multi-system problems and provide an interesting caseload. We have an HDU (currently up to 7 beds) in which we manage acutely ill children, and often children requiring acute respiratory support including CPAP, BIPAP and stable long-term ventilation. The HDU is staffed by a specialist team of nurses, led by an experienced sister.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Summary:

To provide general paediatric services to the Guys and St Thomas Hospital NHS Foundation Trust To participate in clinical and other service activities with the object of ensuring a high standard of patient care To take an active part in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training To contribute to the management of the clinical service and service development Provide oversight and develop a model for medical management of children and young people who require spinal surgery

Provide High Quality Care to Patients

The post holder must be medically qualified and maintain GMC specialist registration and hold a licence to practice To develop and maintain the competencies required to carry out the duties required of the post To ensure prompt attendance at agreed direct clinical care Programmed Activities To ensure patients are involved in decisions about their care and to respond to their views.

Research, Teaching and Training

Where possible to collaborate with academic and clinical colleagues to enhance the Trusts translational research portfolio, at all times meeting the full requirements of Research Governance. To provide high quality teaching to medical undergraduates and members of other health care professions as required by the Clinical Director To act as educational supervisor and appraiser as delegated by the Clinical Director to ensure external accreditation of training post.

Performance Management

To work with medical, nursing and managerial colleagues to ensure high performance in the following areas: Clinical efficiency LOS reductions, reducing cancelled operations and DNA rates. Quality of outcomes infection control targets, reducing re-admission rates. Financial management identification, implementation and achievement of cost improvement programmes and participating in efforts to ensure services are provided cost effectively managing locum agency spend, monitoring and managing the drug budget to target, ensuring accuracy of clinical data for the team. Operational efficiency day-case rates, waiting list activity and demand management.

Medical Staff Management

To work with colleagues to ensure junior doctors hours are compliant in line with EWTD and New Deal To ensure that adequate systems and procedures are in place to control and monitor leave for junior medical staff and to ensure that there is appropriate cover within the clinical areas, including on-call commitments To participate in the recruitment of junior medical staff as and when required. To participate in team objective setting as part of the annual job planning cycle. To be responsible for the annual appraisal of all doctors in training, Trust doctors, Clinical Fellows and non-consultant grades as delegated by the Clinical Director/General Manager.

Governance

To review clinical outcomes in designated area using external benchmarking data where appropriate, to identify and advise variances to the Clinical Director. Participate in clinical audit, incident reporting and analysis and to ensure resulting actions are implemented. To work closely with the Directorate, Patient and Public Involvement panels in relation to clinical and services developments as delegated by the Clinical Director. Participate in ensuring NICE requirements are reviewed and implemented and monitored in the speciality areas. To ensure clinical guidelines and protocols are adhered to by junior medical staff and updated on a regular basis. To keep fully informed about best practice in the speciality areas and ensure implications for practice changes are discussed with the Clinical Director. To role model good practice for infection control to all members of the multidisciplinary team.

Strategy and Business Planning

To participate in the business planning and objective setting process for the directorate and Trust where appropriate. To represent the Trust at appropriate clinical networks/other external clinical meetings, as delegated by the Clinical Director.

Leadership and Team Working

To demonstrate excellent leadership skills with regard to individual performance, clinical teams, the Trust and when participating in national or local initiatives To work collaboratively with all members of the multi-disciplinary team and Kings Health Partners as required To chair regular meetings for the specialties To resolve conflict and difficult situations through negotiation and discussion, involving appropriate parties Adhere to Trust/departmental guidelines on leave including reporting absence

Job Plan

Your job plan is anticipated to contain 6 PAs per week. The appointed candidate will discuss and agree a detailed job plan, as well as personal and professional objectives, with the Heads of Service (HOS) and Clinical Director within 3 months of your start date.

As an organisation, we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our 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.

The job plan will be negotiated between the appointed consultant, Heads of service for General Paediatrics and Spinal and their Clinical Directors at least annually.

An example of the activities in the proposed job plan is below. The exact days/timings of clinical activities to be worked will be determined by service requirements:

Hospital/ location

Type of Work

Start time and finish time

Frequency:

DCC or SPA

Monday

ECH

Specialist spinal pre-op clinic

General/ inreach clinic

Outpatient admin

Inreach triage

0900 1300

0900-1300

1300-1600

Fortnightly weeks A&C

Fortnightly weeks B&D

Weekly

Weekly

PAs

PAs

PAs

PAs

Tuesday

ECH

Specialist spinal pre-op clinic

Specialist clinic admin

Spinal MDT

0900-1300

1300-1600

1600-1700

Weekly

Weekly

Weekly

1 PA

PAs

PAs

Wednesday

ECH

Spinal service development/

Support/

supervision

MDTs/Admin related to MDTs

Complex patients meeting

SPA (teaching, non-patient admin, appraisal, CPD)

0900 1100

11-1300

1300-1400

weekly

Weekly

Weekly

Weekly

PAs

PAs

PAs

PAs

Thursday

ECH

Off

Friday

ECH

Off

Person Specification

Professional Qualifications

Essential

MRCPCH or equivalent On the GMC's Specialist register OR within six months of CCT at time of scheduled interview (Note: CESR applicants must be on the Specialist register at the point of application)

Desirable

MD or PhD

Clinical Skills & Experience

Essential

Comprehensive clinical experience in General Paediatrics If UK trained, must have minimum of 2 years training / experience in General Paediatrics Valid Level 3 Safeguarding Training Valid APLS training or APLS instructor status Ability to work as an effective member of a multidisciplinary team Excellent communication skills and an ability to communicate effectively with colleagues; both clinical and non-clinical, and with children and their carers / relatives.

Desirable

Experience of training junior medical staff in general paediatrics Experience in the management of complex paediatric patients Experience in the peri-operative management of complex surgical patients Valid NLS training Experience in a relevant paediatric subspecialty. For example neurology, respiratory, gastroenterology or endocrinology

Audit Management & IT

Essential

Track record of clinical governance, audit, quality improvement, management and IT skills Understanding of principles of audit and quality improvement Evidence of understanding of the role of clinical management

Desirable

Ability to advise and contribute to planning of service developments Management training or qualification Evidence of leadership in the development of clinical services

Research, Teaching Skills & Experience

Essential

Track record of research, publications Understanding of the principles and applications of clinical research Experience of teaching and training undergraduates, postgraduates and junior medical staff Ability to teach clinical skills Evidence of contribution to effective clinical audit and clinical risk management

Desirable

Evidence of original research Publications in peer reviewed journals Teaching qualification Experience in clinical guideline development Appraisal training

Leadership/Management Skills

Essential

Ability to communicate with clarity and intelligently in written and spoken English; ability to build rapport, listen, persuade/ negotiate. Ability to take responsibility, lead, make decisions and exert appropriate authority. Empathy, understanding, listening skills, patience and ability to work co-operatively with others. Able to change and adapt, respond to changing circumstances and to cope with setbacks or pressure.

Desirable

Experience of performance management, developing and motivating staff Knowledge of finance and budgets

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