Senior Clinical Fellow in Trauma and Microsurgery

Job overview

The Microsurgery and Major Trauma Fellow post has been developed for the University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire Major Trauma Centre. This exciting and essential new role affords opportunities for trainees interested in working with the multiply injured patient. The MTC provides a multidisciplinary pathway of care for the most severely multiply injured patients in the East Midlands. Pre hospital triage protocols ensure patients are transferred to the MTC within 45 minutes unless there is a requirement for emergency stabilisation at the local trauma unit.

The post holder will be responsible to the Plastic Surgery Trauma Consultant and will be involved in providing reconstructive options to the Major Trauma team. The post holder will attend the Major Trauma ward round, Major Trauma calls when on site and provide medical handover of patients for either single specialty or repatriation. The post holder will work closely with the multi professional team to coordinate the pathway for the multiply injured patients and be actively involved in the planning, execution and follow-up of microsurgical free tissue transfer for the Major Trauma patients. There will also be opportunities to participate and lead supervised and accredited research and audit programmes for this new service.

N.B. We reserve the right to close a vacancy before the closing date if we receive a high volume of applications or if there has been a change in organisational priorities.

Main duties of the job

Objectives:

To enhance your knowledge and understanding of:

• Immediate life saving interventions by attending and participating in trauma calls.
• Leading the trauma team.
• Being part of the team liaising with other members of the trauma team, from  different specialties.
• Working closely with other surgical specialities including general, neurosurgery, orthopaedic, maxillofacial and ophthalmic surgeons.
• The management of multisystem trauma.

To become more skilled in:

• Primary and secondary surveys of Major Trauma patients.
• Soft tissue management from primary debridement to definitive coverage in extremity trauma.
• Microsurgical free tissue transfer in the acute clinical setting and for late revision/reconstruction.
• The use of microsurgical free tissue transfer for trauma and non-trauma soft tissue reconstruction.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Plastic Surgery department has an adult in-patient ward of sixteen beds and up to six allocated paediatric beds. The Plastic Surgery Unit covers the whole of Warwickshire, including Stratford- Upon-Avon, Warwick, Nuneaton and Rugby. The Unit manages Trauma, Congenital Abnormalities, Laser Surgery, Head and Neck surgery limited to block dissection, skin cancer and facial reanimation, Skin Cancer and partial and total Breast Reconstruction including oncoplastic surgery and provides an acute and elective hand service. Microsurgical free tissue transfer is routinely used for breast reconstruction and major trauma. The Department has close links with Dermatology, Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Orthopaedics, General Surgery (particularly breast cancer surgery), Paediatrics, Cardiothoracic and Neurosurgery, Occupational Therapy (particularly in relation to hand cases), Physiotherapy, Prosthetic department and Breast Care Nurses. Major burns and cleft lip and palate cases are referred to the Regional Centre at University Hospitals Birmingham and Birmingham Children’s Hospital respectively.