Consultant Rheumatologist

Go back Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Consultant Rheumatologist

The closing date is 12 February 2026

Please note, this Job Description is pending Royal College approval.

This is an excellent opportunity to join the Rheumatology team as we look to expand and develop our core service. The Rheumatology hub is based at Worcestershire Royal Hospital with its own dedicated day-case and outpatient facilities. Clinics are also held at other Trusts and community sites: Alexandra Hospital Redditch; Kidderminster Treatment Centre; Evesham Community Hospital; and Malvern Community Hospital.

Main duties of the job

The department covers all aspects of Rheumatological disease with a high case mix of inflammatory and autoimmune disease. The specialist interests of the existing team have supported a number of specialist clinics, including early inflammatory arthritis, osteoporosis and a combined renal clinic for connective tissue disease and vasculitis. A fast track giant cell arteritis clinic with access to temporal artery/axillary ultrasound is well established.

The department holds a comprehensive weekly MDT that supports a holistic approach to patient care and includes all our professional staff working as a cohesive team. There is a rolling programme of clinical education, clinical governance and departmental business meetings.

Interested candidates should contact Dr Caroline Cardy, for further information about the role.

About us

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Being open and honest

Ensuring people feel cared for

Showing respect to everyone

We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

DBS Checks and Costs

Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check(at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in SupportingInformation section for more details on DBS checks and costs.

Job responsibilities

This job description, together with the job plan, will be reviewed annually and agreed with the Clinical Director and Divisional Director, on behalf of the Chief Medical Officer, to ensure that it continually reflects the areas of work, clinical responsibility of the post and purchaser requirements.

• A suitably experienced post-holder will be expected to provide a clinical service in the relevant specialty to patients of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and to General Practitioners.
• The post-holder will be expected to provide a service to patients of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, General Practitioners and to attend multi-disciplinary meetings. The successful candidate will be expected to work within multi-disciplinary teams in providing high quality clinical care. It is anticipated work will be undertaken on three sites and closer to the patients home. The Trust is seeking to extend services to GP surgeries/health centres etc and job plans may be revised in due course.
• The post-holder will provide support to the A&E department and acute medicine to ensure timely appropriate care and patient flow through the hospital. The post-holder will provide consultation and advisory service to clinical colleagues in the Trust and Primary Care.
• The post-holder will attend cross county and cross site meetings.
• The post-holder will collaborate with colleagues to deliver a high quality, timely service and to work towards meeting the Trusts and departmental objectives.
• The post-holder will participate in the on call rota to ensure that both emergency and urgent services are provided within normal hours, to be shared equally with Consultant colleagues in post.
• There is currently no requirement for the post holder to do out of hours on call duties specific to Rheumatology. The Trust would expect a consultant whilst undertaking on-call duties to attend the hospital site to review patients when clinically necessary. The consultant on call must be prepared to attend willingly whenever requested to do so by a member of their medical and nursing team.

Other Requirements

• An understanding of the current NHS environment, particularly in relation to reforms, initiatives and issues
• Able meet the travel requirements of the job and return to the hospital within 30 minutes when on call

Management and Administrative Experience

• Ability to organise and prioritise workload effectively
• Ability to advise on efficient and smooth running of specialist service
• Ability to organise and manage outpatient priorities
• Ability to manage and lead the specialty firm and multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of audit management and conducting clinical audit
• Ability to manage and lead specialist unit and working parties as appropriate
• Ability to use the evidence base and clinical audit to support decision making

Experience

• Clinical training and experience equivalent to that required for gaining (UK) CCT in Rheumatology
• Ability to offer expert clinical opinion on range of problems both emergency and elective within specialty
• Ability to take full and independent responsibility for clinical care ofli>
• Expertise in sub-specialty

Research Experience

• Ability to apply research outcomes to clinical problems
• An awareness of current specialty specific developments and initiative
• Publications in relevant peer-reviewed journals in the last 5 years
• Evidence of having undertaken original research

Personal Attributes

• Ability to work in a team
• Enquiring, critical approach to work
• Ability to communicate effectively with patients, relatives, GPs, nurses and other agencies
• Commitment to Continuing Medical Education
• Willingness to undertake additional professional responsibilities at local, regional or national levels

Qualifications

• Full GMC Registration with a Licence to practise.
• Entry on the GMC Specialist Register in Rheumatology (or expected within 6 months of interview date) via CCT or CESR (CP), CESR or European Community Rights
• Success in Intercollegiate Specialty Examination or overseas equivalent

Teaching Experience

• Ability to teach clinical skills to medical, nursing staff and other disciplines
• Experience of teaching clinical skills to undergraduates and postgraduates
• Ability to supervise postgraduate research

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.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust