Medical Director

Job responsibilities

Job title:

Medical Director

Department:

Executive Management Team

Hospice band:

N/A

Reports to:

CEO

Responsible for:

Medical Team

DBS required

Enhanced

Job purpose

To have medical responsibility for safe and effective medical care of all patients referred to Birmingham Hospice.

To share in the management and leadership of the hospice as a member of the Executive Management Team, contributing to strategic planning and direction and providing positive, visible, dynamic challenging and empowering leadership in the day-to-day clinical operational management of the hospice.

Accountable to the Trustees, the Medical Director shares responsibility equally with the Clinical Services Director for the overall clinical direction of the hospice, ensuring that policies are in place and support for appropriate management and supervision of medical colleagues, including doctors in training.

Main duties and responsibilities

General

Lead and direct the hospice medical team to provide safe and effective medical services for the hospice

Provide professional advice to the CEO and Board of Trustees relating to general medical services and professional standards within the specialty of palliative medicine

Together with the Clinical Services Director, lead on clinical strategy development for the hospice, reporting directly to the Board of Trustees

Work in partnership with the Executive Management Team. Actively contribute to the management and governance of the hospice by attending and contributing to EMT, Board and committee meetings

Maintain effective professional management and leadership of the hospice medical team, motivating them to work to the highest possible standards

To manage accountable budgets for all aspects of medical staffing and effectively help the hospice meet its annual financial and non-financial objectives

In conjunction with The Director of Clinical Services lead in maintaining a culture which embeds all aspects of clinical quality, governance and effectiveness of the hospice; specifically participating in the regular monitoring and updating of clinical policies and guidelines, investigations into complaints and clinical incident monitoring (with specific attention to prescribing issues)

To lead and manage the hospice medical team, developing them as individuals and as a team to provide excellent care, ensuring external clinical appraisals and internal performance reviews are carried out for all direct reports annually

To be responsible for appraisals and re view meetings within the medical team

Relationships and Partnerships

Working with the Director of Clinical Services, oversee a high standard of clinical practice across the hospice, ensuring services are safe and clinically effective. Providing an adequate and effective programme of clinical audit, research and development across the hospice

Work closely with external colleagues in both hospital and community teams, agreeing ways in which we can work together to meet the needs of the local population.

To promote close links with General Practices and other external health and social care providers and key stakeholders

To represent the hospice at external bodies

Quality and Governance

Ensure that robust clinical governance systems are in place with the active participation of all medical staff in order to ensure high standards of patient care

To actively participate in quarterly Clinical Governance meetings, attending subgroups as required

Alongside appropriate members of the Executive Management Team, manage serious incidents with responsibility for identifying and sharing organisational learning

Clinical

Ensuring the safe and effective standard of medical care for patients, taking account of emotional, social and spiritual needs and to promote and refine the multi professional approach

Ensuring the needs of individual patients, their families and carers are met, leading the MDT, Ward Rounds, family meetings and case conferences

Overall continuing clinical responsibility for patients admitted to the inpatient unit

Develop and provide medical input into the non-inpatient clinical services

Ensure there is medical on call cover available 24/7 and to participate in the on-call rota

With the People Team, lead on the recruitment of medical staffing

Work collaboratively with the local Specialist Palliative Care Team

General duties

Confidentiality

All employees are required to uphold the confidentiality of all information records in whatever format, encountered in the course of employment and after it.

All employees are bound by the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations when, in the course of their employment, they deal with information records relating to individuals.

Equality and Diversity

The hospice is committed to promoting an environment that values diversity. All staff are responsible for ensuring that they treat individuals equally and fairly and do not discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. The hospice expects all staff to behave in a way that recognises and respects diversity in line with the appropriate standards.

Health and safety

All employees have a responsibility under the terms of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to protect and promote their own health and that of others in the workplace.

All employees must comply with all hospice health and safety procedures infection control.

The prevention and control of infection is the responsibility of everyone who is employed by the hospice. Employees must be aware of infection control policies, procedures and the importance of protecting themselves and their clients in maintaining a clean and healthy environment.

Information governance

All employees are responsible for ensuring they undertake any training relating to information governance, read the hospices policies, procedures and guidance documents relating to information governance, and understanding how this affects them in their role.

Professional development

All employees must participate in an annual appraisal and develop a personal development plan with their line manager.

All employees are responsible for maintaining their statutory and mandatory training.

Safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults

The hospice is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All employees and volunteers are expected to behave in such a way that supports this commitment pandemic or major incident.

In the event of a pandemic or major incident, the post holder may be asked to undertake other duties not necessarily commensurate to the banding of this role. This could include duties in any part of the hospice. Prior to undertaking any duties, the member of staff will have full training and induction. We wont ask any member of staff to undertake duties for which they are not competent or where they feel unsafe in their environment or could put patients or themselves at risk.

The job description is not exhaustive and may be amended following appropriate consultation in the light of business needs.

Qualifications

Essential

• Full registration with General Medical Council (GMC) with a current licence to practice
• Inclusion on Specialist Register OR equivalent evidence of higher-level experience

Desirable

• Diploma or MSc in Palliative Medicine or MD

Experience

Essential

• Sound knowledge and understanding of developments in specialist palliative and end of life care combined with experience of strategic decision making, planning, redesign of services, implementing change and medical advisory work
• Proven track record in medical leadership and management
• Understanding and experience of all aspects of clinical governance
• knowledge of national and local health and social care policy which will influence strategic vision of specialist palliative and end of life care
• Experience in working effectively within a specialist palliative care environment and of the multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of leading medical teams
• Up to date with current practice and national initiatives in specialist palliative and end of life care
• Awareness of confidentiality and ethical issues
• Awareness of the process of commissioning services
• Experience of undertaking audits and identifying actions
• Understanding and experience of Clinical Governance
• Experience in handling clinical incident and complaints, including root cause analysis

Personal Skills and Attributes

Essential

• High level of interpersonal and team working skills, strategic and technical skills combined with a supportive and visible leadership style
• Strong negotiating, influencing and interpersonal skills
• Ability to earn the confidence and respect to effectively lead and deliver high quality medical services and support all members of the multi professional team
• Ability to inspire the medical team and lead their development both individually and as a group
• Able to communicate clearly and confidently on complex subjects and ideas to diverse professional and public audiences
• Willingness to support hospice colleagues from other professions and volunteers in their work
• Ability to prioritise clinical need
• Analytical and logical approach to symptom management
• Commitment to ongoing professional development with evidence of relevant CPD
• Proven teaching ability, including use of a variety of teaching methods
• Committed to the ethos of hospice care
• Ability to build internal and outward facing relationships across commissioning and social care
• Enthusiasm, motivation and commitment to the development of Hospice and palliative care services
• Caring and empathic approach with patients and families
• High levels of personal resilience
• Good IT skills

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).