Locum Consultant Haematologist

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and committed Locum Consultant Haematologist to join the Haematology Service at Luton & Dunstable Hospital for a 12-month fixed-term appointment (Maternity Cover) providing maternity cover for a substantive consultant. The post offers 10 Programmed Activities, comprising outpatient clinics, inpatient reviews, laboratory oversight, MDT participation, and clinical governance duties. The role includes responsibility for delivering approximately 15 new patient slots and 35 follow-up clinic slots per week, supporting safe service delivery during a period of sustained demand and workforce pressure.

The postholder will work closely with a team of five substantive consultants, specialty doctors, advanced nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and a part-time specialist pharmacist.

This temporary post is essential to maintaining patient safety, reducing waiting list backlogs, supporting cancer pathway performance, and ensuring continuity of care across the Trust’s haematology service. The service is currently reviewing pathways, expanding nurse-led activity, introducing PIFU models, integrating cross-site outpatient capacity, and redesigning the on-call rota as part of service-wide transformation. The locum postholder will have opportunities to be part of these developments while ensuring high-quality day-to-day clinical care.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide senior clinical care across malignant and non-malignant haematology, delivering approximately 15 new and 35 follow-up clinic slots per week to support essential capacity during maternity leave. Duties include assessing new referrals, reviewing high-risk patients, managing complex haematology conditions, and contributing to backlog recovery. The role includes inpatient reviews, support for the Day Unit and SACT pathways, and providing specialist advice to ward teams. The consultant will participate in the on-call rota, offering urgent clinical guidance, transfusion support and laboratory liaison. They will take part in MDT meetings, contribute to cancer pathways and ensure timely diagnostic and treatment decisions. The postholder will support service improvement initiatives, including remote review pilots, expansion of nurse-led clinics, and PIFU implementation. Responsibilities also include teaching junior staff, contributing to governance, undertaking audit, and supporting safe, high-quality care across the service, including cross-site working where required.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The postholder will work as a Locum Consultant Haematologist providing maternity cover for a substantive consultant for a fixed 12-month period. The main duties include:

Outpatient Responsibilities

• Deliver approximately 15 new patient and 35 follow-up outpatient appointments per week across malignant and non-malignant haematology.
• Provide timely review of high-priority patients, including those on chemotherapy pathways, myeloma, lymphoma, thrombosis, haemoglobinopathy, and complex general haematology cases.
• Support backlog recovery by participating in targeted follow-up and routine capacity clinics.
• Contribute to cross-site outpatient capacity, including review of selected patients at Bedford as required.

Inpatient & Day Unit Responsibilities

• Provide consultant-level oversight for inpatients with haematological conditions, including ward reviews and clinical advice to other specialities.
• Offer senior clinical input to the Day Treatment Unit and SACT pathways, ensuring safe delivery of chemotherapy and supportive treatments.
• Collaborate with nursing and pharmacy teams to ensure continuity of care and timely clinical decision-making.

Laboratory & Diagnostic Duties

• Provide clinical oversight for haematology laboratory results, transfusion issues, and urgent diagnostic queries.
• Liaise with biomedical scientists, laboratory managers, transfusion practitioners, and wider pathology colleagues to ensure safe interpretation of results and prompt escalation where required.

Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) & Cancer Pathways

• Actively participate in MDT meetings for haematological malignancies.
• Support improved cancer performance indicators, including 2WW, FDS and 62-day pathways.
• Provide senior input into diagnostic planning, treatment decisions and ongoing cancer pathway governance.

On-Call Responsibilities

• Participate in the consultant haematology on-call rota (1:5 moving toward 1:8 as part of ongoing cross-site integration).
• Provide out-of-hours advice for inpatients, transfusion issues, and urgent laboratory queries.
• Ensure appropriate senior input for emergency cases, urgent diagnostic concerns, and time-critical treatment decisions.

Governance, Safety & Service Improvement

• Contribute to clinical governance, incident review, morbidity and mortality meetings, and quality improvement initiatives.
• Support implementation of service transformation projects, including: Expansion of nurse-led clinics Remote follow-up pilot and virtual review pathways Implementation of Patient Initiated Follow-Up (PIFU) Cross-site outpatient and on-call service redesign
• Expansion of nurse-led clinics
• Remote follow-up pilot and virtual review pathways
• Implementation of Patient Initiated Follow-Up (PIFU)
• Cross-site outpatient and on-call service redesign
• Help address capacity-related patient safety risks and support actions to reduce follow-up backlog and prevent avoidable delays.

Teaching, Audit & Professional Development

• Participate in teaching and supervision of junior doctors, MTI doctors, specialist nurses, and other multidisciplinary staff.
• Undertake regular audit, support research activity where appropriate, and contribute to Trust-wide clinical training.
• Maintain professional development in line with GMC standards and participate in annual appraisal.

Other Duties

• Provide cross-cover for consultant colleagues during periods of leave.
• Support Trust initiatives to improve patient experience, reduce harm and maintain 18-week performance.
• Work flexibly, including an element of remote working where appropriate, to support clinic delivery and team-based activity.