Locum Consultant General Surgeon wsi Benign Hepatobiliary

Job overview

Applications are invited for the post of a Consultant General Surgeon with an interest in benign hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgery at the Whittington Health NHS Trust.

The post is also part of the well-established Emergency General Surgery (EGS) model that currently involves a 4 person EGS consultant team. There are plans to continue to expand the EGS workforce within the general surgery unit over the next year.

This post is central to the further development of general surgery services at Whittington Health. The Whittington is a key provider of general surgery services in North Central London. We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic consultant who is eager to assist with the development of both elective and emergency general surgery services across the Trust with a key aim of improving patient experience. We also expect the candidate to continue our robust ‘’hot gallbladder pathway’’, complex gallbladder, CBD exploration and splenectomy work. Any expertise in endoscopy skills would be beneficial. This post will also take a lead in developing our emergency surgery services to meet the NHS London Adult Emergency Services Commissioning Standards.

The unit is currently in the inception phase of implementing a robotic assisted surgery service that is envisaged to encompass all general surgery sub-specialties. It is hoped any successful candidate will be considered for involvement in the development of this service based on expertise.

Main duties of the job

Please see the full Job Description and the Person Specification for further details about the job role.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This post is envisaged to comprise a full 10 PA’s and will be based entirely at the Whittington site. The vacancy replaces a previous post which was a shared arrangement between the Royal Free Hospital HPB unit and Whittington Health but has now been re-purposed following re-structuring of the service. It is hoped that the post holder will maintain the current infrastructure for benign HPB work that has been set up within the trust and use their expertise to further progress the service. The unit has a very well-established emergency cholecystectomy (‘hot gallbladder’) pathway with an estimated 150-200 cases being performed per year since its inception. Laparoscopic Bile duct exploration and elective splenectomy (WH is a renowned sickle cell unit) work has also been developed as part of the service in addition to taking on the more complex cholecystectomy cases referred from local and regional units for more surgical expertise. It is hoped that the successful post holder will continue to maintain the close relationship with the Royal Free HPB team and work to develop future collaboration. There is a well-developed benign GI MDT in which a successful candidate will be expected to be an integral member of this.

The role encompasses an Emergency General Surgery (EGS) component with a current 4 surgeon model in place. This allows for 3 elective weeks punctuated with a week of emergency surgical commitment ((Mon-Thu 8am-6pm, Friday 8am -12pm). This includes a daily post take ward round and responsibility for the acute surgical in-patients as well as CEPOD operating. The consultant is strongly supported by junior doctors and dedicated geriatric surgical liaison consultant. It is envisaged that this will expand to a 5-person model within the coming 18 months when replacement for colleagues who are planning to retire are planned. Further expansion of the EGS model is planned in the longer-term vision of the unit. The post also includes night consultant cover and weekend cover as part of the general surgery on call rota.

Please refer to the attached job description for full and further details.