Locum Consultant in Rheumatology

Job overview

The Rheumatology department at the Princess Alexandra Hospital is devoted to provide modern day rheumatology services to patients. The emphasis is on early diagnosis, aggressive treatment and ongoing support. Outpatient review and advice constitutes the majority of the workload. There are no designated inpatient rheumatology beds. However, specialist advice is given on inpatients when requested. Excellent support from orthopaedic colleagues is available as is high quality radiology support. Day case facilities are in place and these are utilized for giving biological therapies, immunomodulatory treatments and intravenous osteoporosis treatment. Designated biologics clinics are held once a week for screening, DAS assessment and follow-ups of patients on biological therapies. The rheumatology department at the Princess Alexandra Hospital is devoted to provide modern day rheumatology services to patients. The emphasis is on early diagnosis, aggressive treatment and ongoing support.

This post involves responsibility for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness and the proper functioning of the department.

There is no out of hours/unsocial hour’s responsibility. There is no general medical commitment and there are no rheumatology inpatients, although advice on other inpatients may be required as part of the on-call commitment.

Main duties of the job

• The Rheumatology team provides a service for Rheumatology. This includes all aspects of treatment and relevant management duties for the proper functioning of the department.
• Responsibility for carrying out teaching, and accreditation duties as required and contribution to Continuing Medical Education and clinical governance initiatives.
• Conducting all activities within the contracted level of service and operating plan for Rheumatology services.
• Working in conjunction with clinical and professional colleagues to ensure that the productivity of staff within the specialty is maintained and job satisfaction is enhanced.
• Awareness of and compliance with all Trust infection prevention and control policies, to include hand hygiene, personal hygiene, environmental and food hygiene. Undertaking annual training/updates in infection prevention and control.
• Accountability for implementation of the Code of Practice within the department/area of responsibility.
• Preparation for and undertaking of protective interventions in a manner that is consistent with evidence-based practice and maintaining patient safety.
• General duty of care for the health, safety and well-being of yourself, work colleagues, visitors and patients within the hospital in addition to any specific risk management or clinical governance accountabilities associated with this post.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Our Organisation

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.

We employ 3,500 staff and serve a local population of around 350,000 people living in west Essex and east Hertfordshire, centred on the M11 corridor and the towns of Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford and Epping. Our extended catchment area incorporates a population of up to 500,000 and includes the areas of Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.

Our Values

The Princess Alexandra Promise to our patients as identified by our 3 values which will contribute to improving our patient experiences:

Patient at heart – Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts

Everyday excellence – Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both

Creative collaboration – Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care

The Trust believes in investing in all our staff and rewarding high standards of care whilst building for excellence and in return we expect our staff to uphold the Trust values to the highest level.