Consultant Neonatologist

Job overview

These two Consultant Neonatologist 10 PA posts are full time at 10PA

The neonatal unit is the regional surgical neonatal intensive care in the West Midlands. It has a total of 44 cots, including 24 intensive care and high dependency cots, and 20 special care cots. Activity levels for ITU and HDU are high and this is one of the busiest units in the country with a complex and varied case mix. There is a separate Transitional Care ward for 12 mothers and up to 16 babies.

Birmingham Women's Hospital cares for 7200 deliveries per year taking complex fetal medicine and maternal medicine referrals.

All consultant job plans include 1.5 core SPA, and 1 SPA for a lead role.

Post (A) will include 1 SPA for Fetal Medicine / Palliative Care lead

Post (B) will include 1 SPA for Education and Guidelines lead.

The Fetal Medicine/Palliative Care Lead will liaise closely with the Fetal Medicine and Palliative Care teams to develop clear pathways of neonatal involvement and to enhance palliative care starting with antenatal counselling and planning through to post-mortem care.

Education/Guideline Lead will coordinate the extensive education programme supporting the wider education with novel ideas and linking with the Governance Team to translate outcomes from incidents and reviews into measurable learning opportunities. They coordinate the planning and implementation of network guidelines and updating of local guidelines and SOP’s.

Main duties of the job

The post holders will:

• Be a key member of the Trust’s senior medical team.

• Work closely with the Clinical Service Lead, consultant neonatologists, Directorate Manager and senior nursing team to ensure that the objectives of the Directorate are achieved and key neonatal strategies are implemented.
• Participate in the support service for surgical neonatal patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital

• Participate in the outpatient follow up of neonates

Key Tasks

• Maintain high clinical standards in management of well and ill newborns

• Share with colleagues the responsibility for day-to-day management of the NICU and all associated work
• Share on call commitment for NICU on a basic 1 in 14 basis. Night shifts are non-resident, but presence on the unit, if required, must be achievable within 30 minutes.
• Teaching and training of junior staff, neonatal nursing staff, visiting medical staff, midwives and medical students.

• Maintain appropriate CPD and mandatory training

• Participate in Health Education West Midlands activities including ARCP’s and regional training days

• Participate West Midlands Operational Delivery Network activities

• Lead and participate in clinical governance, appraisal and revalidation where indicated

Please see the attached Job Description for full details

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Plan

The job plan will be based on the information below. The timings of the sessions indicated may alter, but the overall composition of the job plan is not expected to change without expansion of the team.

Consultant Neonatologist 10 PA post will continue to follow a 14-week cycle.

All consultant job plans include 1.5 core SPA, and 1 SPA for a lead role.

Post (A) will include 1 SPA for Fetal Medicine / Palliative Care lead

Post (B) will include 1 SPA for Education and Guidelines lead.

The Fetal Medicine Lead will liaise closely with the Fetal Medicine lead to come up with a clear pathway of neonatal involvement, and leading from a neonatal point of view in the Fetal Medicine and Fetal Surgical meetings. The Palliative Care Lead role will work closely with the fetal medicine, palliative care and bereavement teams to enhance palliative care starting with antenatal counselling and planning through to post-mortem care. A new service has started for antenatal palliative care clinics once per month in conjunction with Fetal Medicine team and palliative care team. The postholder will coordinate education and development of palliative care pathways.

Education Lead will coordinate the extensive education programme consisting of daily teaching at lunchtime, cotside teaching and supporting the wider education with novel ideas, such as workplace-based assessment clinics, preparation for postgraduate exams, and linking with the Governance Team to translate outcomes from incidents and reviews into measurable learning opportunities. The Guidelines Lead shall be involved in the planning and implementation of the network guidelines and will also be responsible for reviewing and ensuring updates of local guidelines and SOP’s.

Provisional Assessment of Programmed Activities in Job Plan:

The contract will be for 10 programmed activities.  This will be based on the nationally agreed whole-time contract.

Example of rolling 14-week work plan:

ICU:       0830 – 2130                                        Flex: SPA/Clinic/Additional responsibilities

HDU:     0900 – 1700

SC:          0900 – 1700                                        Additional responsibility can include, case reviews, MDTs,

BCH:      0900 – 1300                                        bereavement follow-up

Night:    2100 - 0830

Consultant led clinics:

Monday am:                       Low Birthweight

Tuesday am:                       Renal/general

Wednesday am:               General

Neurology

Wednesday pm:               Cardiology

HIV/infectious diseases (monthly)

The post holder will:

• Be a key member of the Trust’s senior medical team.

• Work closely with the Clinical Service Lead, consultant neonatologists, Directorate Manager and senior nursing team to ensure that the objectives of the Directorate are achieved and key neonatal strategies are implemented.

• Participate in the support service for general surgical neonatal patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital

• Participate in the outpatient follow up of neonates through the clinic system

• Support existing consultants in delivering a neonatal echocardiography and cranial ultrasonography service

Key Tasks

• Maintain high clinical standards in management of well and ill newborns

• Share with colleagues the responsibility for day-to-day management of the NICU and all associated work

• Share on call commitment for NICU on a basic 1 in 14 basis, covering separate day intensive care, non-intensive care, and night neonatal rotas. Consultant cover is required on a 24-hour, 7 day week basis, and changes may be necessary to support the service in case of unexpected absences which all consultants are expected to support. Resident cover when covering daytime intensive care is from 0830- 2130. Night shifts are non-resident, but presence on the unit, if required, must be achievable within 20 minutes. Responsibilities of the Post are within a 10 PA contract (see Job plan for details)
• Teaching and training of junior staff, neonatal nursing staff, visiting medical staff, midwives and medical students.

• Maintain appropriate CPD and mandatory training

• Participate in Health Education West Midlands activities including ARCP’s and regional training days

• Participate West Midlands Operational Delivery Network activities

• Lead and participate in clinical governance, appraisal and revalidation where indicated

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

Clinical

This post provides excellent clinical experience in a very busy and varied service. The service is consultant led. Duties are based on a 1 in 14 rolling rota as outlined above, supervising care on the NICU and junior staff, liaising with obstetricians and with sub-specialist staff from BCH, support for parents and staff, and transitional care supervision.

Duties on the neonatal intensive care shifts involve acute care to babies requiring intensive and high dependency care. There is a special care week, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday with additional clinical duties to provide support to the NICU consultant and manage antenatal counselling referrals, special care, postnatal and transitional care babies. A third consultant provides support to the high dependency care, and a further consultant provides visiting support for surgical babies in the Birmingham Children’s Hospital from 9am until 1pm. Nights are non-resident on-call shifts, with a telephone handover.

There is close communication at Consultant level between maternity and neonatal services to manage referrals and demand within the available resources.

There is shared responsibility for administration and development of services, training of medical and nursing staff, and staff appraisal.  Services will include liaison with colleagues, managers and community nurses; co-operation with mortality and morbidity recording and governance processes; co-operation with collaborative audit, participation in clinical governance and risk management.

Clinicians will have high risk or general baby follow-up clinics most weeks when not on service

Education & Training

The University of Birmingham Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology is based at the Trust, and a number of medical students pass through on obstetric clinical attachment when neonatology is taught. Neonatal undergraduate teaching currently runs over a 1-week block, eight times annually. Consultant involvement in this process is expected.  Postgraduate educational supervision of junior paediatric staff is shared.  There is also some responsibility for neonatal nurse teaching.

Within the Trust there are regular educational meetings involving neonatal consultants:

Monday 1-2pm                                                 Journal Club

Tuesday 1-2pm                                                 Grand Round - junior staff presentation

Wednesday 1-2pm                                          Consultant Led teaching

Thursday 9-10am                                              Fetal medicine meeting

Thursday 1-2pm monthly                              Neuroradiology teaching

Thursday 1-2pm                                                Consultant Led Teaching/ Simulation/ journal club

Friday 1pm                                                          Consultant meeting

There is an active simulation education programme supported by a simulation fellow in a brand-new state of the art fully immersive simulation lab that opened in December 2024. Simulation scenarios are run 2-4 times per month and the department runs several simulation courses including SHINE (Simulation Helping In Neonatal Emergencies), Communication, Palliative Care and Skills and Drills course.

CPD

This is an integral part of the post and involves active support of consultant education meetings.  It is the Consultant’s responsibility to ensure they take entitled study leave as part of their personal development plan.  Annual appraisal and revalidation will be undertaken.