Consultant Anaesthetist

Job overview

We seek a dynamic individual with a broad range of specialist skills in anaesthesia to join our team as a substantive appointment. The Peri-operative & Critical Care directorate at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) comprises over 100 consultants, 5 specialty doctors and 38 trainees and delivers a hugely diverse range of clinical activity across adult and paediatric theatres, obstetric care, peri-operative medicine, critical care, acute and chronic pain management and home ventilation services.     The successful candidate would provide specialist peri-operative care including pre-operative assessment, intra-operative anaesthetic management and post-operative care to patients undergoing a wide range of operative procedures at the RVI and may also be asked to undertake sessions at the Day Treatment Centre (DTC), based at the Freeman Hospital, with on call participation either on the RVI adult anaesthesia on-call rota or the Obstetric Anaesthesia on-call rota.

In addition to the challenges of the role, we can offer you a commitment to teaching, education, research and audit. Candidates for the post must be registered medical practitioners and on, or eligible to join, the Specialist Register within six months of the date of the Appointments Committee.

Please read attached Job Description and Person Specification.

Main duties of the job

This post is aimed at adult anaesthetists with a very broad range of specialist skills. We would particularly welcome applicants with specialist skills in obstetric and regional anaesthesia. We anticipate sessions will be available within a flexible job plan according to the skills of the successful applicant.

Additionally, we seek an individual who will bolster our education team, supporting our College Tutors and helping with patient level teaching, individual resident educational supervision and participation in our education programme as part of our position as an anchor organisation for training within the region.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

For an informal discussion and further information regarding the opportunity and Directorate, please contact one of the Clinical Directors: Dr Ian Clement on 0191282 9813 - [email protected] or Dr Barry Paul on 0191 282 9833 - [email protected] .Alternatively please contact Dr. Sarah Metcalfe, Lead for Adult Anaesthesia on 0191 282 9817, or via email [email protected] or Dr Danny Morland, Lead for Obstetric Anaesthesia on 0191 282 3796, or via e-mail [email protected].

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical:  •    Clinical duties will encompass all aspects of elective and emergency adult theatre anaesthesia with possible commitments in obstetric anaesthesia as desired.  •    Where applicable, commitments in obstetric anaesthesia would include providing obstetric anaesthesia and analgesia on the tertiary level obstetric unit in addition to delivering a resident consultant evening session on Delivery Suite combined with the overnight on call (currently 1:8 rota)  •    The exact make-up of the job-planned week is open for negotiation and will involve service delivery within the surgical services identified below.  •    The successful applicant may be required to deliver some elective theatre work during planned evening sessions as part of their regular job plan.  •    The Surgical Directorate delivers a major upper and lower GI service, endocrine surgery and breast surgery; Neurosciences provide a regional service for neurosurgery and interventional neuroradiology; Plastic Surgery provides major reconstructive surgery, including head and neck, breast and lower limb, a regional burns service and a regional hand trauma service; Orthopaedics provide a trauma service, upper limb orthopaedics and a major spinal surgery service; Gynaecology run a gynae-oncology, uro-gynaecology and fertility service; there are also opportunities in maxillo-facial surgery, ophthalmology and oculoplastics and dental anaesthesia.   •    The RVI is a Major Trauma Centre – the successful candidate will manage both the immediate presentations of major trauma and subsequent interactions with the peri-operative and pain service.   •    On-call will be for either adult anaesthesia (expected to be approximately 1 in 14 frequency) or obstetric anaesthesia (approximately 1 in 8 frequency).    Administrative:  •    To participate in all aspects of Clinical Governance, making a significant contribution to multidisciplinary quality improvement and risk management activities in Peri-operative and Critical Care. The aims of QI will include;   •    Ensuring compliance with national guidelines relating to Anaesthesia  •    Helping to create an environment of continuously seeking to improve the quality of care   •    These activities will all be carried out in a multidisciplinary manner. Clinical governance, clinical effectiveness and audit meetings occur on six mornings and six afternoons every year. All members of the Directorate are expected to attend and contribute. These meetings are also utilised to deliver Trust mandatory training.   •    The five departments within the Directorate, Adult Anaesthesia, Adult Critical Care, Paediatric Anaesthesia, Obstetric Anaesthesia and Pain Management function managerially as a single department. You will be expected to undertake administrative duties in relation to the care of your patients and in relation to the running of the Department of Anaesthesia in co-operation with the Heads of Department, Specialty Manager and Clinical Director. You will be entitled to become a member of the Medical Staff Committee of the hospital.  •    Obstetric Anaesthetists are required to contribute towards Maternity Service’s Clinical Governance structures including representation at monthly meetings, guideline drafting, incident investigation and risk management.  •    To undertake anaesthesia administrative duties within a context of compliance with Directorate and Trust aims and objectives   •    Undergo Continued Medical Education (CME) in accordance with guidelines stipulated by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) and pursue Trust objectives and your own personal development programme. This will be reviewed at annual appraisal and job planning. The Trust has a mentoring scheme, which new consultants are encouraged to use.  •    There are close links with the other two Directorates within the Trust at Freeman Hospital - Peri-operative Services and Anaesthesia services within the Cardiothoracic Directorate. There is a collaborative approach to workforce planning, Clinical Governance and risk management, therapeutics, equipment and education.    Research:  •    The Trust welcomes and encourages research as a high-profile activity that complements the service provided. The emphasis is on studies that fall within the National Institute of Health Research Portfolio.   •    The Peri-operative and Critical Care Directorate have recently gained the accolade of becoming an Academic Clinical Directorate within NUTH with the associated access to research funding. There is ongoing CLRN activity within the Directorate and several active awards for Greenshoot and Research Capability funding within the consultant body.    Teaching:  •    The Directorate places considerable emphasis on under-graduate and post-graduate education and has a remarkable success rate at RCoA examinations. You will be expected to make an active contribution to under-graduate and post-graduate teaching of Anaesthesia.  •    The Directorate wishes to play a key role in the regional development of training the next generation of anaesthetists.  •    Under-graduate education is provided to medical students from Newcastle University.  •    The Directorate also educates nursing staff, operating departmental personnel, professions allied to medicine, paramedic ambulance personnel and armed forces personnel.  •    The Northern School of Anaesthesia provides the hub for post-graduate anaesthetic education with teaching opportunities available to all Consultants.  •    All Consultants are expected to be actively involved in the clinical supervision of all postgraduate residents in the Directorate. Some will have specific responsibility for a small number of individuals as educational supervisor under the direction of the RCoA College Tutor.  •    Multidisciplinary teaching, learning and simulation is a key component of safety culture on Delivery Suite with consultant obstetric anaesthetists as leaders.