Consultant Chemical Pathologist

Job overview

We are pleased to advertise this exciting post for a Consultant Chemical Pathologist to join the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at North Bristol NHS Trust.

This post will focus on delivering against a Cardiometabolic Medicine (CMM) portfolio with clinical sessions spread across:

• Weekly Lipid Clinic based at Bristol Royal Infirmary
• Weekly Bariatric medicine clinic within the Specialist Weight Management Service at Southmead Hospital
• Clinical Liaison with secondary care specialities such as Diabetes and Endocrinology and MASLD multi-disciplinary teams

Additionally, there will be an expectation to work within the consultant leadership and senior management teams for the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Southmead Hospital, delivering on the  clinical validation and advisory service through participation in the duty biochemist rota.

The post also offers the opportunity of a funded 1.0 programmed activity (PA) session in Research for suitable candidates, delivering activity for the Diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic medicine research team at North Bristol NHS Trust against an exciting portfolio of clinical research.

Main duties of the job

Direct clinical care (including unpredictable on-call)

• Bariatric/Obesity medicine – 2.0 PAs Clinic – 1.0PA Admin – 0.25PA (1 hour per clinic) MDT – 0.625PA (T3/T4 MDT and GLP-1 MDT) Triaging 0.125 PA (30min)
• Clinic – 1.0PA
• Admin – 0.25PA (1 hour per clinic)
• MDT – 0.625PA (T3/T4 MDT and GLP-1 MDT)
• Triaging 0.125 PA (30min)
• Lipid clinic – 2.0 PAs Clinic – 1.0PA Admin – 0.5PA MDT – 0.25PA Project work – 0.25PA
• Clinic – 1.0PA
• Admin – 0.5PA
• MDT – 0.25PA
• Project work – 0.25PA
• Laboratory – 4.125PA Duty Biochemist – 2.375PA DCB Weekly meeting – 0.25PA Laboratory Management – 1.5PA
• Duty Biochemist – 2.375PA
• DCB Weekly meeting – 0.25PA
• Laboratory Management – 1.5PA
• Non-resident on-call - 1 in 4 -> 1 in 6 frequency

Supporting Professional Activities - 2.0PA

• Research PA - 1.0PA
• CPD etc - 1.0PA

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical services

This post primarily is delivered at North Bristol NHS Trust (Southmead Hospital) with some activity at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (Bristol Royal Infirmary).

This post aims to be at the forefront in recognising the specialism offered by Chemical Pathologists in providing CMM across 2 core clinical domains in this post (with opportunities for further development encouraged):

• The post holder will be a consultant working within the Specialist Weight Management Service (SWMS) at North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT). The post holder will work with the clinical lead for SWMS to deliver the service through the provision of outpatient activity, weekly MDT meetings with both medical and surgical teams and provide specialist advice and support for inpatient care when required. The SWMS service provided at NBT accepts referrals across the whole of the Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) ICB, providing multi-modal bariatric care to patients living with clinical obesity. Chemical Pathologists are uniquely placed to provide specialist advice for the biochemical basis of obesity and its complications
• The post holder will work as a consultant within the local lipid service consolidated primarily at Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI). The post holder will provide outpatient activity at the BRI, input into the local lipid MDT, and ensure parity of clinical input across the city through outreach to Southmead Hospital. Opportunities could help develop outreach of lipid specialism into community services that widen the reach of support past secondary care outpatient clinics (which can be limited currently in meeting the needs of communities).

The post holder will separately act as a key clinical liaison, working with other MDTs within the hospital group including:

• The Metabolic Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) MDT in liaison with the Department of Hepatology/Gastroenterology across the city
• The Endocrinology/Biochemistry MDT in liaison with the Department of Endocrinology at Southmead Hospital

Clinical Biochemistry laboratory services

• The post-holder will be required to take a leading role in the clinical validation and advisory service to hospital and primary care clinicians, nursing staff and other health professionals including participation in the rota for the provision of clinical and laboratory support out of hours. Attendance and contribution to relevant multidisciplinary meetings will also be required.
• They will be a key part of the senior management team for the Clinical Biochemistry and Blood Sciences and working closely with the Clinical Biochemistry and Blood Sciences Management Teams to provide an integrated efficient and cost-effective Laboratory Clinical Biochemistry and Blood Sciences Service to all Users. The appointee will participate in Departmental management and governance meetings where possible. They will be eligible to become Head of Department and Clinical Lead for Laboratory Medicine in due course.
• They will provide professional leadership in overseeing the running of the laboratory to ensure services are delivered to nationally accepted standards including maintaining UKAS Accreditation (ISO15189:2022)
• The post-holder will contribute to the strategic planning for the future provision of the Clinical Biochemistry and Blood Sciences service in keeping with the needs of the Trust, health commissioners and patient needs.
• Bristol NHS Group, with its joint clinical strategy will bring together clinical services across both North Bristol NHS Trust and Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. It will provide an exciting opportunity to develop services across existing teams, considering efficient and dynamic processes for providing biochemistry services across BNSSG.

Study & Research

• The Diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic medicine Research Team is a friendly, dynamic team actively involved in a range of commercial and non-commercial research studies across diabetes, endocrinology, and obesity. We are looking for a consultant who would be willing to join the research team and contribute to the delivery of these studies in the role of Sub-Investigator, supporting the Trust’s growing research portfolio.
• We run a large research unit undertaking academic and commercial trials, with currently over 20 studies on our books and a further 5 in planning.
• The team includes 2 consultants, 2 dietitians, 1 health psychologist, 3 research nurses, 4 health care practitioners and a research administrator