Consultant in Gastroenterology

Job overview

These posts are joint Consultant posts with London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH) to work in the department of gastroenterology and general medicine, primarily based at St Mary’s (Imperial) and St Mark’s (LNWH) Hospitals.

The post holder will contribute to the general gastroenterology and endoscopy services at both Trusts, as well as join the acute medicine on-call rota at St Mary’s Hospital. This is a result of changes in job plans of existing members of the department and to support growth in clinical activity.

These cross-Trust posts help integrate the Northwest London gastroenterology services, maximising the expertise of specialists and delivering excellence in patient care across the sector.

Main duties of the job

The Gastroenterology Department aims to provide a comprehensive service for patients with gastroenterological problems whilst being fully committed to developing, teaching, training and research at all levels.  There are inpatient beds, outpatient clinics and endoscopy units on each site.

Services are provided for patients from diverse social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and from a wide geographical area.The Gastroenterology service is extremely well supported by the Histopathology and Radiology departments. There are also close links with the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Bariatric service and the Department of Hepatology, all at St Mary’s Hospital. It also has close links to the upper gastrointestinal surgery and HPB surgery, both based at the Hammersmith Hospital. At Charing Cross there are links with colorectal surgery and Bowel Cancer Screening service. The endoscopy units at ICHT provide extensive diagnostic and therapeutic interventional services.The post may involve the provision of endoscopy on any of the three sites. Endoscopy services include upper and lower GI endoscopy, capsule endoscopy, ERCP, EUS and luminal stenting. The Trust also provides HALO radiofrequency ablation for high grade dysplasia/early malignancy in Barrett’s oesophagus, single balloon small bowel enteroscopy, digital SPYGLASS cholangioscopy and EUS services for upper GI and Hepato-biliary cases. The Trust participates in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Gastroenterology outpatient services offered at the Trust:

• General Gastroenterology outpatient clinics (all general clinics booked to a 5 New and 8 F/U template)
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) outpatient clinics at St Mary’s, Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals
• Specialist HPB clinics at Hammersmith Hospital
• Day case endoscopy, including gastroscopy, colonoscopy, ERCP & EUS, balloon enteroscopy
• Capsule endoscopy
• Upper GI physiology
• Bowel Cancer Screening

1 post will include a complex nutrition / Intestinal failure clinic at Central Middlesex Hospital (London North West Hospital Trust).

1 post will include an IBD clinic and alternate week endoscopy list at Central Middlesex Hospital (London North West Hospital Trust).

The endoscopy service provides a comprehensive range of diagnostic procedures, including enteroscopy (SMH/ CXH), EUS and ERCP (Hammersmith), and is fully accredited JAG certified. The service operates across all three main sites and continues to grow rapidly

At St Mary’s there is a 15 bedded ward which is covered by gastroenterology and has a mixture of gastrointestinal and GIM patients.  Inpatients on the St Mary’s site are looked after by the consultant on the wards on a 1:6 basis (10 day block). The Consultant of the week will undertake a twice-weekly ward round of the gastroenterology ward (15 beds), and a daily board MDT round. During ward cover weeks all other DCC is cancelled except one and cover emergency GI bleeds in theatre during the ward week