Consultant Neonatologist with neurodevelopmental interest

Job responsibilities

Clinical Duties:Clinical duties are divided pro rata based on clinical professional activities (PAs). This post will be remunerated at a rate of 10 PAs per week although the number of PAs worked each week will vary depending on attending duties, which are shared between the consultant group.

Intensive Care weeks: The attending consultant has continuing responsibility for care of both medical and surgical patients in their charge, including all babies in intensive care and the isolation room. During weeks on service other activities can be suspended to allow commitment to the acute daily workload and service needs. The consultant will lead a grandward round twice a week and it is expected that the consultant will do an informal ward round each day. There is occasional need for consultations for babies on the General Paediatric wards and PICU. The consultant attends the registrar handover round at 8.00 am, and handsover care to the on-call consultant between 5 and 7pm.

High-dependency Care weeks: The attending consultant has continuing responsibility for the care of patients in their charge including all babies in the high dependency area on the unit. During weeks on service other activities can be suspended to allow commitment to the acute daily workload and service needs. The consultant will do a grand round twice a week and it is expected that the consultant will do an informal ward round each day. This consultant is also responsible for covering emergency activity outside of the neonatal unit (delivery suite and theemergency department), and for antenatal counselling of women on labour ward. The consultant attends the registrar handover round at 8.15 am, and hands over care to the oncall consultant between 5 and 6 pm.

Special Care weeks: The appointee will participate in providing cover for special care babies and the postnatal wards. During these weeks, the consultant will review patients in their care daily and provide support for junior staff looking after patients on the postnatal wards. Thereis an allowance for twice weekly ward round of transitional care patients on the postnatal wards. They also provide consultant support for the neonatal community nursing team.

Non-attending weeks: The appointee will undertake appropriate administrative and clinical duties associated with the running of the clinical department. Attendance at multi-disciplinary unit meetings, the Thursday morning teaching session and Grand Round and the multidisciplinary meetings planning direct patient care is expected as well as contribution to the educational activity of the department. There are days off during non-attending weeks in accordance with the total PA remuneration.

Clinics: There is a once weekly neonatal follow-up clinic, staffed by two neonatal consultants and a middle grade doctor. There are currently monthly clinics for infants who are at risk of neurodevelopmental sequelae. These are held on fourth week of the month and comprise a graduate clinic on Wednesday mornings for 6 month and 1-year olds and a 2-year clinic held on Tuesday afternoons. Infants are assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler developmentand GMFCS for those with motor disorders. There is an accompanying therapist for some of the 2-year-old clinics. Data from these clinics is entered onto the national neonatal database. Babies with problems are referred on to our neuro-disability team and developmentalpaediatric team for further management. The service has not yet got funding for 4-year-old assessments to complete the NICE recommendations. The neonatal unit has recently received recurrent funding from NHS England for an embedded neonatal in-patient therapy service to support the national recommendations. These comprise neonatal physiotherapists (Band 7 and Band 8A), neonatal occupational therapists (Band 7 and Band 8A), neonatal speech and language therapists (Band 7 and Band 8A) and a neonatal dietician (Band 8A). The appointee will be expected to work withthese new posts to establish best practice for in-patient assessment and treatments for highrisk babies. The postholder will lead and participate in the therapy ward rounds for selected babies that are deemed high risk. They will also provide support to the physiotherapists for in-patient and out-patient assessments using Prechtl methodology and reporting. This will entail joining network groups within South London. For in-patients with complex neurodevelopmental issues, there will be a requirement to attend discharge planning meetings. The postholder would also be expected to engage with the Developmental Care working group which is run by the neonatal nurses. Training for Bayley Scales assessments and Prechtl will be supported if needed. Other clinics done by consultants include a neonatal respiratory clinic, paediatric cardiology clinics with a consultant from Royal Brompton Hospital. There is a bimonthly fetal medicine counselling clinic with parents for infants with abnormalities detected antenatally requiring specific neonatal care postnatally.

Out of hours of cover: On call will be 1:9.3 with prospective cover allowing for colleagues leave. The on-call consultant will remain in the hospital until 10 pm. The post holder will be expected to liaise with consultant colleagues in providing internal cover for annual leave andstudy leave. The consultant on-call for the weekend will oversee an ITU and HDU ward round each day and be on site for at least 12 hours per day.

Non-clinical duties:

Education: All consultants actively support multi-professional and undergraduate education within the department. It is expected that the post holder will contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. There may be opportunities to present at Medical School and ChildHealth Grand Rounds. CPD, Appraisal and Job-planning: All consultants are expected to regularly update their professional knowledge and to maintain a portfolio of evidence for CPD. They will also have a commitment to participate in the Trusts mandatory and statutory training (MAST). The post holder will be supported to develop the required skills in educational supervision.

Leadership & Management: All consultants are expected to take an active role in the leadership & management of the clinical service, attend regular multidisciplinary meetings and lead defined areas of the service. The successful candidate will participate in the Trusts system of governance and audit and to observe the Trusts agreed policies and procedures,drawn up in consultation with the profession on clinical matters, and to follow the standing orders and financial instructions of the Trust.

Research: Individual research interests and opportunities will be welcomed and will be supported within the department and together with other research active collaborators such as infectious diseases and the medical school. There is the opportunity to participate asPrincipal Investigator in NIHR portfolio studies.

Academic: The post-holder will be expected to contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

Qualifications

Essential

• MRCPCH/MRCP (or equivalent) MD

Desirable

• Higher medical or related degree

Certification

Essential

• Registration with GMC and on the Specialist Register with: ? CCST or CCT in Paediatrics (Neonatal Medicine) or equivalent, (or eligible for CCST/CCT and registration within 6 months of interview) ? On specialist register by equivalence ? Child Safeguarding level 3

Expertise

Essential

• Ability to take full and independent responsibility for a wide variety of neonatal illness, including care of surgical neonates
• Advanced technical skills in neonatal medicine Expertise in neonatal follow-up programmes
• Expertise in specialised neonatal neurodevelopmental follow-up programmes
• Experience independently assessing neurodevelopment with Bayley's scales (or equivalent)
• Experience with interventions optimising neurodevelopmental outcomes
• Ability to advise on the efficient and smooth running of a specialist service
• Family integrated care experience Experience of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching Computing and IT skills

Desirable

• Experience independently assessing neurodevelopment with other assessment tools eg. Prechtyl
• Experience collaborating with community and educational services for complex neurodevelopmental cases
• Leadership of specialised MDT & AHP teams
• Collaboration with network/ regional/ national neurodevelopmental interest groups
• Higher Appraisal and assessment training and skills qualification in medical education
• Clinical interests to complement current medical staff

Research Skills

Essential

• Author of publications in peer reviewed journals
• Presentation to learned societies

Desirable

• Research specific to neurodevelopment methodology and outcomes
• Lead author in research publications
• Lead investigator in clinical study

Management skills

Essential

• Evidence of leadership skills
• Evidence of management skills
• Good understanding of the structure and processes of the NHS
• Attendance at management course

Desirable

• Formal Management and Leadership training

Clinical Governance

Essential

• Understanding of Clinical Governance & Risk
• Evidence of involvement in multidisciplinary Governance, Risk and Audit

Desirable

• Experience with neurodevelopmental outcomes audit & data management
• Formal audit/ risk training & publication

Personal Skills

Essential

• Commitment to continuing CPD, teaching and educational supervision
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to develop excellent working relationships with neonatal team and new teams
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Caring attitude to patients

Desirable

• Formal leadership training

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

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