Fixed Term Consultant Rheumatologist 8 PA's (12 Months)

Job overview

The appointee will be expected to provide a clinical and administrative service in Rheumatology, including outpatient clinics, support of specialist nurses and a specialist registrar, Medical Treatment Unit (MTU), and seeing inpatient referrals. Patient related administrative work, such as prescriptions, helpline calls, screening outpatient referrals and responding to advice & guidance letters from primary care will also be part of the job role. The appointee will work closely with the other consultants in the team, and other clinical and non-clinical Rheumatology staff to provide a high standard of care to the Rheumatology patients and to give consultant opinion, guidance and advice on any patient referred to the department.  The appointee will share the responsibility for the maintenance of evidence-based guidance to support care of the patients.

The appointee will be encouraged to take an active role in any relevant Trust committees or sub-committees and any local or regional Rheumatology meetings. There will also be opportunities to get involved in research and clinical trials. There are no on-call commitments for Rheumatology.

Please read the Job Description and Person Specification attached for full details of the post.

Main duties of the job

• Maintenance of the highest clinical standards in the management of all patients under the care of your team.
• Sharing with medical, nursing and administrative colleagues, responsibility for the day-to-day management of Rheumatic diseases.
• To share with colleagues the responsibility for the management of the Rheumatology Department.
• Provision of outpatient service in the general Rheumatology clinics and the joint consultant sub-specialty clinics (Early Arthritis, Severe Arthritis, Axial Spondyloarthritis, Injection and ultrasound clinics) at the West Suffolk Hospital and at other sites including Newmarket, Sudbury, Thetford, Botesdale, Haverhill and Stowmarket.
• Working flexibly to help the department deliver key targets with regards to outpatient activity.
• Teaching and training of junior staff, nursing staff and medical students.
• Providing Rheumatology consultations to in-patients at West Suffolk Hospital.
• To actively participate in both departmental and Trust matters concerning Clinical Governance and Audit (including the National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit).
• To have responsibility for ensuring active participation in continuing professional development (CPD)

Please read the Job Description and Person Specification attached for full details of the post.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Across all of our service, we aim to offer structured care for patients using standard activity and outcome measures where available to drive treatment decisions. General guidance is agreed among the clinicians and modified as new evidence emerges.

As well as General Rheumatology clinics there are established subspecialty clinics dedicated to Early Arthritis, Axial Spondyloarthritis, injection/MSK ultrasound, and a joint Rheumatology/Respiratory clinic.

Other clinics include a weekly emergency clinic booked no more than 10 days in advance, which allows rapid access for urgent problems for new or follow-up patients.

In addition, there are nurse clinics for DMARD counselling and follow up of RA, AS and PsA patients, especially those on advance therapies, including biologics, of which there are over 600 patients within the department.

New patient waiting times are routinely the shortest in East Anglia. The main interest of the department is “Early Inflammatory Arthritis” with care focussed on rapid access, objective assessment of prognosis and disease activity. This is followed by early intensive treatment driven by objective outcome measures (treat to target). A dedicated clinic is held alternate weeks by every consultant. Patients meeting defined criteria are referred by a fast track system and seen within three weeks, with blood testing beforehand. Patients deemed to need DMARDS are counselled by the nurses and we initiate subcutaneous Methotrexate as first line treatment in RA. We share the care of patients between doctors and nurses following common guidance, which is adapted to meet the circumstances of each patient. Some nurse appointments may be over the telephone, allowing monitoring of drug tolerability and disease activity, but being more convenient for the patient.

Please read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details