Clinical Fellow in Adult Allergy

Job overview

The Adult Allergy service is based at Guy’s Hospital, with plans of setting up a satellite unit. It is the country’s largest and busiest allergy centres, taking referrals locally and nationally. It has a long-established reputation for pushing forward the frontiers in both clinical care and academic research.

Substantive consultant staff include Dr Stephanie Kayode, Dr Annette Wagner, Dr Olympia Tsilochristou, Dr Lucinda Kennard, Dr Chris Rutkowski, Prof Stephen Till, Dr Rosa Caballero, Dr Rubaiyat Haque, Dr Prathap Pillai, Dr Kok Loong Ue and Dr Leonard Siew (Clinical Lead).

The service is an accredited UK training centre for Allergy (Allergy and Clinical Immunology) and Immunology (Allergy, Clinical and Laboratory Immunology) and currently has 4 trainees and is supported by 2 allergy CNS, 2 band 6, 2 band 5 nurse, 2 experienced HCA and 3 allergy dietitians.

Main duties of the job

The postholder, together with colleagues, will be responsible for the provision of services to the Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

We see approximately 10,000 patients per year and run a range of outpatient and day care services:

• General Allergy
• Drug Allergy
• Food Allergy
• Difficult Urticaria (with Dermatology)
• Eczema (with Dermatology)
• Transition and adolescent clinics (with Paediatric Allergy)
• Anti-IgE for chronic urticaria
• Immunotherapy (aeroallergens, insect venom, animal allergens)
• Food and drug provocation testing
• Drug desensitisation
• Non face-to-face allergy clinics

Outpatient clinics run daily and they are all consultant led. We have support from a large nursing team who lead the injection services (anti-IgE and immunotherapy) and three dieticians. Provocation tests are performed in our dedicated Allergy Day Care Unit (ADCU) which is consultant-led.

The main clinical components of the full-time post are:

• 3 general/drug allergy clinics per week at Guy’s Hospital 2 drug/food challenge clinics per week at Guy’s Hospital Medical Oversight of the nurse led Venom Immunotherapy clinic Prescribing for Drug Allergy Clinic and Allergy Day Care Unit Reviewing Ward referrals and holding the Resident doctor bleep

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Adult Allergy Department is seeking a Clinical Fellow in Adult Allergy to join a dynamic, enthusiastic and forward-thinking team. The Department offers a comprehensive range of allergy services and has been accredited as a Centre of Excellence by both the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA2LEN) and the World Allergy Organisation (WAO).

Organisation and Duties

All resident doctors are responsible jointly, under the direction of the consultants, for the dedicated Out-Patients and Day Care Unit for patients in the Department of Adult Allergy. They are responsible for the supervision and teaching of the other junior resident doctors in their duties. They will normally be required to attend 3 outpatient clinics per week and 2 drug/food challenge clinics in the Day Care Unit to which they have specific responsibility.

Duties of the Post:

On Call

The Resident Doctors and Clinical Fellow holds the Resident Doctors bleep from 0900 to 1700 from Monday to Friday. There is no out of hours duties for this post.

Education and Training

The post is a busy one and the Clinical Fellow will obtain wide experience in the diagnosis and management of drug allergy, food allergy, bee/wasp venom allergy, allergic rhinitis, chronic urticaria and angioedema, immunotherapy and allergen provocation testing. The post-holder will participate in departmental MDTs and Resident doctor lunchtime teaching sessions.

Teaching

The Clinical Fellow will be actively involved in the teaching trainees, nurses, and general practitioners.

The post is not recognised for higher specialist postgraduate training.

In post training in Allergy Medicine will be provided.

Medical Audit

The Trust is wholly committed to the ideals of continuous Clinical Audit as a means of identifying any weaknesses of care as early as possible, as a method of providing purchasers and others with accurate quantitative descriptions of the care we provide, and as an important element of modern medical education. In particular we are interested in the development of the patient-based measures of outcome that are appropriate to allergy medicine. For all these reasons we require all junior staff to commit themselves to these ideals, of ‘evidence-based medicine’ and to accept our audit needs as an essential element of their time here.

Education

The Trust is a post-graduate centre and there are a large number of weekly meetings in a range of specialities. This job description sets out the key tasks and responsibilities of the post. It is essential that it be regarded with a degree of flexibility, so that changing needs of the service can be met.

Patient care

To serve our patients by working with them to determine their needs, viewing the quality of care as being of paramount importance.

Research

To translate the outcomes of research into improved patient care by evaluating new ideas and being innovative in how they are applied Education To provide education and training for our staff, while encouraging teamwork and valuing each member of the team for their involvement and specialist expertise

*** Please be advised that this vacancy may close early should we receive sufficient number of applications ***