Locum Consultant in Geriatric Medicine - 10 PAs (Maternity Cover)

Locum Consultant in Geriatric Medicine - 10 PAs (Maternity Cover) Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Applications are invited from suitably qualified physicians for the post of Locum Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine, Maternity Cover for 12 months. The post will be based at Homerton University Hospital and the post-holder will have the following core responsibilities:

1. To provide comprehensive inpatient care on the Elderly Care Unit, with approximately 14 inpatients per ward round.
2. To assist the Trust in evaluating the efficacy - in clinical, operational and financial terms of the services.
3. Outpatient clinics are generally flexible to accommodate other clinical commitments, with profiles of between 2-3 new patients, and 3-5 follow-up patients.
4. The post is offered on a basis of 10 programmed activities for one year to cover maternity leave. Full secretarial support will be provided as well as suitably equipped office space with IT.

To achieve the departmental objectives the Trust is seeking a dynamic individual with highly developed leadership and communication skills and a commitment to multi-disciplinary and integrated working across specialty boundaries.

The Trust has the required arrangements in place, as laid down by the Royal College of Physicians, to ensure that all doctors have an annual appraisal with a trained appraiser and supports doctors going through the revalidation process.

Main duties of the job

The essential requirements of the post are:

1. To work collaboratively and pro-actively with all appropriate clinical colleagues within the Trust in developing and implementing an acceptable service model reflective of best practice.
2. To share responsibility with colleagues for providing evidence-based standards of care for all inpatients and outpatients.
3. To have continuing responsibility for the care of patients in his/her charge, including all administrative duties associated with patient care.
4. To liaise effectively and on a timely basis with General Practitioners and all other external agencies.
5. To maintain and promote team and multi-disciplinary working within all relevant services at all times.
6. To lead and co-ordinate the dedicated multi-disciplinary team appointed to support the service models to achieve effective rehabilitation and effective discharge management.
7. To deliver comprehensive ward rounds and weekly multi-disciplinary meetings to coordinate the delivery of high-quality patient care.
8. To deliver multi-disciplinary outpatient clinics to provide specialist support.
9. To participate in corporate and singular responsibility for the management of junior medical staff.
10. There may also be an opportunity to work on the General Medical Consultant on-call rota.

About us

Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (HH) is an acute hospital located in the east London Borough of Hackney. The current Chairman is Sir John Gieve (Mary Elford will take over from 31st March 2025), and the Chief Executive is Ms Basirat Sadiq.

The hospital building opened in 1986, with Homerton Hospital Trust established in 1994. We provide training for undergraduates from Barts and The London Medical School / Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, and nursing and allied health professions training for students from City University and the University of East London.

Homerton became one of the first ten NHS Foundation trusts in the country in April 2004. This allows the Trust to secure certain freedoms to facilitate innovation in the way services are developed and provided. As well as our Trust Board, we also have a Council of Governors comprised of governors representing the local community.

In 2011 the Trust integrated with City & Hackney Community Health Services thereby providing it with an opportunity to develop new service models and pathways that cross traditional organisational boundaries.

Employing over 3000 people, the hospital has approximately 500 beds and manages a 50-bed nursing home, Mary Seacole Nursing Home, in Shoreditch, East London. In 2022, the Trust saw over 300,000 people in outpatient clinics, and over 126,000 people were treated in the Accident and Emergency department.

Job responsibilities

The comprehensive range of Geriatric services currently provided by HUH is as recommended by the National Service Framework for Older People and the British Geriatric Society. Multidisciplinary team working is strong with senior physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers dedicated to elderly services. There is close liaison and working with all departments and formally with orthopaedics, old age psychiatry, neurology & community teams.

Over recent years the Trust has undertaken an extensive programme of work to improve and better integrate its Elderly Care provision. These include:

1. Geriatrician at the Front Door: The Geriatrician at the Front Door operates through having the consultant geriatricians providing daily input into the Emergency Department (ED) and the Acute Care Unit (ACU) teams to identify patients as suitable either for rapid discharge or for direct admission to the Elderly Care Unit and providing a dynamic interface with a range of intermediate care services in the community.
2. Virtual Frailty Ward: Approximate 26 patient capacity service for expediting discharge from local hospitals and avoiding acute hospital admission for selected frail older patients living in Hackney.
3. Elderly Care Unit: The inpatient care is delivered via two 28-bed Elderly Care units, focusing on comprehensive geriatric assessment, acute treatment and inpatient rehabilitation.
4. Surgical Rehabilitation Team: The team consists of a consultant geriatrician and Band 8 Physiotherapist with additional physiotherapists, occupational therapists and one specialist nurses.

For full details please refer to Job description.

Person Specification Qualifications & Higher qualifications

• Fully registered with GMC MRCP (or equivalent) On specialist register or within 6 months of Geriatric/General Medicine CCT at the time of interview Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR)
• Other higher degree or diploma (e.g. MD, PhD)

Clinical Skills and Relevant Experience

• Ability to practice independently in Geriatric and General Medicine.
• Ability to offer expert clinical opinion on a range of geriatric medicine related problems.
• Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Excellent clinical skills.

Leadership and professionalism

• Ability to take responsibility, lead, make decisions and respond appropriately to service need.
• Evidence of cross craft working and interdisciplinary working which goes beyond usual team working.
• Familiar with current structure of the health service and conversant with recent initiatives and changes.
• Management of team or programme or project. Experience of using quality improvement methodology and managing change.

Teaching & training

• Experience of undergraduate and post-graduate teaching.
• Experience of educational supervision, teaching skills course/qualification.

Clinical Governance

• Evidence of contribution to effective audit and clinical risk management.

Research

• Understanding of principles and application of clinical research.
• Relevant research experience Publication of peer reviewed papers.
• Ability to communicate with clarity and intelligently in written and spoken English.

Patient focused skills

• Empathy, understanding, listening skills, patience, social skills appropriate to different types of client.

Interpersonal skills

• Good interpersonal skills coupled with an ability to cooperate, persuade and negotiate within a senior clinical and management team.

Personal attributes

• An awareness of own strengths and weaknesses coupled with an ability to deploy them effectively.
• Professional attitude towards work, good record of attendance.

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.

Salary: £105,504 to £139,882 a year per annum pro rata.