Acute Medicine Locum Consultant

Job overview

A key driver behind this model is the Trust's commitment to Acute Medicine, and optimising consultant-led care during peak demand hours to ensure the rapid assessment and treatment of acutely ill medical patients.

A dedicated Ambulatory Emergency Care Unit (AEC) opened at Aintree in 2015. This allows same day treatment of ambulatory medical patients and hot clinics, which enables admission avoidance and early follow up of patients. We also continue to embed a rapid assessment process across the floor and support nursing and medical coordinators throughout the day with acute take board rounds on the Acute Medical Unit.

This enables us to drive fonruard patient care and optimise patient flow through improved coordination and management of the medical take. These initiatives earned Acute Medicine the Team of the Year, and Proud of Aintree awards in November 2016.

In February 2023, Acute Medicine relocated to a bespoke unit at the front door of the hospital alongside the Emergency Department, with the aim of optimising care for Acute Medicine patients.

Senior clinical involvement is available 12 hours per day, 7 days per week and is provided currently by a combination of acute physicians and other physicians from within the Medical Division but it is envisaged that, with further appointments, this service will be provided by the Acute Medicine Directorate itself with in-reach services provided by the inpatient speciality teams.

Main duties of the job

• Supervising and co-ordinating the admitting medical team to optimise efficiency of the acute medical take in the hospital.
• Provide a prompt senior opinion/assessment of acutely ill medical patients.
• Take responsibility for ensuring that appropriate triage and management is arranged for each patient and determining whether discharge home is appropriate, as well as identifying seriously ill patients who need immediate medical intervention
• Provision of consultant care for patients remaining on the AMU beyond 9am on the morning after admission until such time as they are either transferred to a medical ward or discharged from hospital. At present the morning ward rounds on the AMU are conducted in a formal way and rostered junior medical staff accompany the Consultant on the ward round within the limitations of service provision. lt is intended that all patients on the AMU are reviewed during this round and a management plan is agreed. An afternoon board round also occurs.
• Close supervision/support of the admitting medical team of the day, providing help with, for example, unusually difficult emergency procedures (for example resuscitation, central line placement, chest drain insertion etc) although experienced specialist registrars will more usually be responsible for these procedures.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Acute Medical Unit (AMU) at Aintree comprises a 13 space trolleyed assessment area (MAB/FAB) for Acute Medicine Assessments, 2 side rooms and a 4 bed High Care Area. There is also a drop-off bay for initial patient assessment and our AEC (ambulatory emergency care) which includes 6 assessment rooms, a prodedure room and a treatment bay/hub.

There is a co-located 25 bed short stay area (AMU 2) Acute Medicine is currently run by full Time Consultant Physicians with support from Consultant Physicians from other medical specialties. They are supported by three Acute Medicine StRs, four Clinical Fellows, two GPVTS trainees, two IMT 1-2  trainees, two IMT 3 trainess,  two ACCS trainees, one FY2  trainees, four FY1 trainees, eight Advanced Nurse Practitioners (one in training)and 3 PAs.

The AMU Consultants work very closely with the AED team, the on-call medical Specialist Registrars and IMT and Consultant Physicians across the medical directorate to help support the management of the acute take.

Liaison with General Practitioners regarding the suitability for admission of a small number of patients in whom doubt exists about the need for admission (via a dedicated phone link to AEC) and to provide an opinion on such patients if deemed necessary in a rapid assessment clinic setting.

Supervise the junior doctors in ensuring that a discharge summary is provided promptly for patients discharged to home from AMU and AEC.