Locum Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine

Job overview

We are recruiting a locum Consultant (7.5 PAs) to work in our Paediatric Emergency Department at St Mary’s Hospital.

We are a dedicated paediatric ED with approximately 30,000 attendances a year of children and young people up to 16 years of age. We are the Major Trauma Centre for North West London. We have an on-site PICU, and support from medical and surgical specialties across Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust and West London Childrens Hospital. We run a busy co-located 4 bedded Paediatric CDU, and we have a co-located Urgent Treatment Centre.

We are an academic and teaching hospital, with strong research links to Imperial College for both paediatrics and trauma, and multiple active projects ongoing. We host medical students on paediatric, ED and elective placements. We have a culture of innovation and improvement. We have clinical fellows in Paediatric Trauma and in Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) with expertise in these areas within the consultant body.

We are looking for a consultant with subspecialty training in Paediatric Emergency Medicine to work as part of our team of 10 consultants. Key qualities include the ability to manage the various pressures within a busy emergency department, an enthusiasm to work well with people and a desire to help maintain a culture of learning and improvement in everyday practice.

Main duties of the job

This clinical post will provide direct patient care, clinical leadership and support for the medical and nursing staff, ensuring the safety of patients and the delivery of high-quality emergency care in an effective and efficient manner. The post holder will lead paediatric major trauma teams, work closely with the nursing team to maintain a safe department and to ensure appropriate flow. The post holder will develop good working relationships with the general paediatric and specialist teams. Consultants are “on the shop floor” until 10 pm every day (including weekends) on a 1:8 basis.

Post-holders would be expected to contribute to the teaching opportunities both within the department

(undergraduates, resident doctors and nursing staff), and across the trust (for example FY training,

RCEM training, APLS etc), including formal and informal teaching sessions, and work placed based assessments. The post-holder will provide educational supervision to relevant resident doctors.

We have embeded a culture of innovation and improvement within the department, and we would

expect consultants to actively participate, and support trainees and nursing staff with their own projects. Consultants are also expected to support the extensive research activity within the department.

The consultant body are responsible for the quality of care and the safety of our patients, and are heavily involved in the governance processes, safeguarding processes and safety work within the department.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key areas of responsibilities

Provide High Quality Care to children and young people who present as an emergency, both in direct clinical care, and in supporting the resident doctors, nurses and other specialty teams in their management.

Provide Teaching and Training to all members of the MDT within the department, for specialist teams who manage patients in the ED, for the wider medical and nursing teams within the trust who may deal with children, and to the undergraduate students in their paediatric learning.

Provide support for the research activity within the ED, and help translate new evidence into practice.

Provide educational supervision for resident doctors to enable their development.

To work with medical, nursing and managerial colleagues to ensure high performance in clinical efficiency, quality care, financial management and operational efficiency.

To help manage the staff within the department, including ensuring compliance of resident medical team rotas, ensuring adequate safe staffing, and engaging with regular job planning and regular appraisal.

To help review clinical outcomes, participate in incident reporting and safety reviews (using the PSIRF framework), responding to complaints and ensuring guidelines and protocols are up to date and adhered to.

To demonstrate excellent leadership skills, trust values, collaboration with colleagues, role model exemplary behaviour and attitudes, and to help resolve conflict and difficult situations through negotiation and discussion.