Consultant in Palliative Medicine

We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic, motivated, forward thinking Consultant in Palliative Medicine to an innovative community post in Bolton. The post holder will be joining the service at a time of exciting change and development to improve the provision of palliative care to the residents of Bolton.

The post holder will be working predominantly in the community setting, although the service is integrated, so it also provides hospital based services. This includes a proactive emergency department service by two senior clinical practitioners (8a), to identify and manage unmet palliative care needs and identify people who are sick enough to die in order to start advance care planning. This service has been shown to reduce admissions, with a low re-admission rate, and reduced length of stay. The service has now been given the opportunity to expand this service into the community setting.

The post holder will work alongside a consultant colleague in the community setting, to support the newly appointed community senior clinical practitioners and a specialty doctor. The service is developing to deliver a 7 day rapid response service and 'Hospital at Home' virtual ward provided by the palliative care senior clinical practitioners, alongside advanced clinical practitioners in the Admissions Avoidance Team and other specialist teams running virtual wards. The post holder will need to provide leadership and service development support in setting up these services .

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be joining the service at a time of exciting change and development and will be expected to engage, lead and drive these changes to prove the benefits and further expand the team to support the service.

The post holder will be working predominantly in the community setting, although the service is integrated, so it also provides hospital based services.

The post holder will work alongside a consultant colleague in the community setting, to support the newly appointed community senior clinical practitioners and a specialty doctor.

The service is developing to deliver a 7 day rapid response service and 'Hospital at Home' virtual ward provided by the senior clinical practitioners, alongside advanced clinical practitioners in the Admissions Avoidance Team and other specialist teams running virtual wards. The post holder will need to provide leadership and service development support in setting these services up.

The on-call requirements for this post are yet to be determined, as weekend working to support the new service needs to be piloted, so there is a requirement to be flexible and engage with these pilots. The current consultants provide 1:5 frequency 2nd on-call cover to Bolton Hospice.

There is currently no requirement to provide an outpatient clinic.

About us

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is an integrated provider of acute, intermediate and community health care serving the population of Bolton. This provides us with an opportunity for our services to work closely with our partners in primary care and the local authority to ensure a seamless service for our patients.

At Bolton our patients and people are at the heart of everything we do. We ensure our patients receive the highest quality of care and are guided by our trust Values. We are proud that our Trust is a centre of excellence formaternity, neonataland care for children, and that it has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The aims of the Trust are to improve the health of our people and provide the best possible care and ensure that our staff have pride in their work. Staff are valued and we can offer excellent opportunities for further training and development.

Royal Bolton Hospital currently has approximately 600 inpatient beds, serving the population of Bolton and neighbouring areas. It is one of the busiest hospitals in the NW for emergency admissions. It has a cancer unit, with close links to the Christie Hospital. It has an oncology unit providing clinics and chemotherapy, and an Acute Oncology service.

Bolton is distinctive in its variable nature with a wide range of cultures, deprivation and health. Bolton has wide variation in measures of deprivation across the Borough which overall are wider than the national average.

Job responsibilities

Please see documents enclosed.

The post holder will be expected to engage, lead and drive changes to prove the benefits of expanding the service in a community setting and further develop the team to support the service.

Person Specification Qualifications

• Primary Medical Qualification MRCP, MRCGP, FRCR or FRCA
• On the Specialist Register in Palliative Medicine or within 6 months of obtaining CCT

Experience

• Experience of the practice of multi-disciplinary Specialist Palliative Care within hospital, community and hospice settings at a senior level.
• Experience of teaching and educational supervision
• Leadership skills, including experience managing change and motivating teams
• Engagement with management training

Skills

• Advanced Communication Skills
• Ability to drive service improvement
• Able to lead audit
• IT skills and knowledge of Electronic patient record systems
• Ability to conduct virtual consultations where necessary
• Commitment to continuous personal development
• Understanding the strategic role of the consultant
• Able to work collaboratively with other teams
• Teaching experience in various settings

Knowledge

• Knowledge of clinical governance
• Understanding NHS structure and function.
• Expert knowledge of symptom management and its' safe practice in different clinical settings.

Other

• Live within an acceptable distance of the Trust.
• Able to participate in an on-call rota
• Current driving license and use of car for work.

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.