Consultant Anaesthetist with an Interest in Obstetric Anaesthesia

Job overview

We are searching for an exceptional Consultant Anaesthetist with a passion for Obstetric Anaesthesia to join a team that is growing, innovating, and determined to deliver the safest, highest‑quality care for women and families. This is a chance to lead, to challenge, and to help build a service that will sit at the heart of our brand‑new Women’s and Children’s Centre opening in 2028.

Our Trust is on the brink of a once‑in‑a‑generation change. Backed by £312 million of investment, the Hospital Transformation Programme will create:

• A single acute site at The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, home to a new 30‑bed Critical Care Unit, a modern Emergency Department, and a state‑of‑the‑art Women’s and Children’s Hospital
• A dedicated planned care site at The Princess Royal Hospital, supporting high‑quality elective surgery and improved patient flow

This is your opportunity to join us at the perfect moment — early enough to influence the design and delivery of future services, but close enough to opening that you’ll see your impact become reality.

You will work across obstetric and general anaesthesia, with on‑calls currently based at the Princess Royal Hospital. As we prepare for the HTP, future on‑call arrangements may evolve to support cross‑site working. There are also opportunities to develop interests in pre‑operative assessment, paediatric anaesthesia, and day‑case anaesthesia within our new elective hub, opened in June 2024.

Main duties of the job

Our maternity unit supports around 4,000 births each year, offering a busy but highly rewarding clinical environment with a caesarean section rate of approximately 42% and epidural rate of approximately 26.7%. You will join a dynamic, friendly, and forward‑thinking team of Consultants and SAS doctors who are committed to delivering safe, high‑quality care for women and families.

Daytime obstetric anaesthesia is consultant‑led, with SAS colleagues providing out‑of‑hours cover. Together, our team delivers all elective and emergency obstetric anaesthesia and runs a well‑established weekly high‑risk antenatal clinic.

We work exceptionally closely with our obstetric, midwifery, and theatre colleagues, and our strong multidisciplinary culture is one of our greatest strengths. This is reflected in:

• Active anaesthetic involvement in PROMPT, live drills, and multidisciplinary simulation
• A monthly Labour Ward Forum
• Joint planning for high‑risk cases
• Weekly MDT risk meetings
• Daily MDT labour ward rounds

You will have protected obstetric governance time, in addition to monthly departmental governance meetings.

We are proud to train postgraduate doctors from the Stoke School of Anaesthesia, supporting them through their Initial Assessment of Obstetric Competence and offering intermediate and top‑up modules. If you enjoy teaching, you will find plenty of opportunity to get involved.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

A formal job plan will be agreed between the successful candidate and their Clinical Director and consultant colleagues, on behalf of the Medical Director within 3 months of starting in post. A full-time job plan is based on a 10 PA working week. The job plan will be reviewed annually and is a prospective agreement that sets out the consultant's duties, responsibilities, and objectives for the coming year. It covers all aspects of a consultant’s professional practice including clinical work, teaching, research, education and managerial responsibilities. It will provide a clear schedule of commitments, both internal and external and will include personal objectives, detailing links to wider service improvements and trust strategic priorities.

For a full-time contract, the job plan will be divided on average per week (pro-rata for a part time post) as:

• 7.5 Programmed Activities (PAs) of Direct Clinical Care - includes clinical activity, clinically related activity, and predictable (0.6 PA) and unpredictable (0.65 PA) emergency work.
• 2.5 Supporting Professional Activities (SPAs) - includes CPD, audit, teaching and research.

Covering CPD, teaching, research, audit, QI, leadership, simulation, guideline development, and more

We actively encourage consultants to develop specialist interests, and there is genuine scope to carve out a niche — whether that’s obstetrics, simulation, human factors, digital innovation, education, governance, or service redesign. You will be joining a department that values initiative, supports ambition, and celebrates expertise.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.