Consultant Stroke Physician

Job responsibilities

The post will be based at the Princess Royal University Hospital. There will be an average of 8.5 Programmed Activities of Direct Clinical Care, with the remainder being allocated for Supporting Professional and/or other Activities. An indicative job plan is attached but we would envisage tailoring the job plan to suit the right applicant whilst meeting the needs of the service. There is also potential for additional PAs that could be negotiated when in post and any discussions thereof will be with the Stroke Clinical Lead and the division of General Medicine at the PRUH.

The post holder will rotate, along with the current PRUH based Stroke Physicians, across the Hyper-acute service. Each Consultant will spend time, on rotation, managing patients on the HASU, and the TIA clinic. An applicant with geriatrics training would be expected to contribute to the care of patients on the SU; candidates with neurology or acute medicine experience would be encouraged to participate in the PRUH inpatient and outpatient services for those specialities. The post holder will contribute to the weekday daytime on-call service for stroke and there will be an out-of-hours on-call commitment of 1 in 6 weekend days with compensatory time in lieu after working a weekend. Night-time on calls are on a 1 in 12 rota (across weekdays and weekends), and involve being on call for both PRUH and Denmark Hill (DH), with a responsibility to be the receiving consultant for the DH thrombectomy service on some weeks, supervising a Registrar based at DH (and remotely supporting PRUH) and an SHO based at PRUH. An indicative job plan is provided in this document but this would be personalised depending on the specific skills and interests of applicants.

DEPARTMENT DESCRIPTION

INTRODUCTION

The Kings Neurosciences Centre serves a population of over 3.2 million and includes the population of the County of Kent as well as the Lambeth, Southwark & Lewisham (LSL), Bromley and Bexley & Greenwich Health Authorities populations.

The Centre includes the departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Stroke, Neuroradiology, Neurophysiology, Clinical Neuropsychology, Neuro-Rehabilitation and Neuropathology. The Frank Cooksey Rehabilitation Unit and the Ontario ward in Orpington Hospital provide specialised neuro-rehabilitation services for people following a neurological event, as well as step-down and enhanced recovery service for medically stable neuroscience patients. Some services are also located at the Institute of Psychiatry.

At present there are around 170 neurosciences beds which include 11 HDU beds, 68 stroke beds (40 at PRUH and 28 at Denmark Hill), 14 beds for Neuro Rehabilitation, and a 10 bed (4 HDU) paediatric neurosurgical ward is situated within the Variety Club Childrens Hospital. Six ventilated beds are available in the surgical ITU for both elective and emergency cases. Outpatient clinics are conducted at Denmark Hill, the PRUH and Orpington Hospital.

STROKE MEDICINE

Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is designated as a Stroke Centre by Healthcare for London. We play a central part in the delivery of the London Stroke model. We strive to deliver high quality stroke care, undertake leading edge research and train a multidisciplinary work force to deliver stroke care for the future.

The capacity to deliver the tripartite agenda of excellence in clinical service, research and training that are competitive on the world stage has been enhanced by Kings Health Partners (KHP), a collaboration between one of the worlds leading research-led universities and three of Londons most successful NHS Foundation Trusts.

The combined stroke service provides a high quality, evidence-based, stroke service complemented by continued review and development of policies and practices for cutting-edge stroke care. The comprehensive Stroke Centre provides emergency, acute and rehabilitation care for all types of vascular insults (such as TIAs, ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke) with a view to increased involvement in subarachnoid haemorrhages, subdural or extradural haematomas, as well as the academic base for high quality interdisciplinary research in stroke.

Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has two closely linked Stroke services and these operate on the PRUH and Denmark Hill sites. The Stroke service at the PRUH comprises of a 14 bedded Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU) and a 26 bedded Stroke Unit (SU). The stroke service at the Denmark Hill site has a 12 bedded HASU and a 16 bedded SU. Each HASU admits over 100 patients per month, and provide a 24/7 thrombolysis and a daily outpatient rapid access neurovascular service. The stroke services on both sites are consistently ranked at the top of the RCP national clinical audit performance tables.

The PRUH stroke service admits about 1200 acute patients per year and there is a daily TIA clinic that sees an average of 600 patients per year. The PRUH hyperacute service is underpinned by 12 Consultants (4 in daytime hours at PRUH, rising to 12 in total who manage the stroke service cross-site out of hours on call). There is 1 HASU-based Specialist Registrar, a rotating Geriatric Medicine Specialist Registrar and there are 9 stroke clinical fellows/SHOs on a 24/7 rota. Combined with the Denmark Hill site, we are one of the biggest thrombolysis centres in the UK, and thrombolyse approximately 350 patients per year. There is access to advanced imaging and the service is supported by close links to allied specialties including neuroradiology (and neuro-intervention), vascular surgery, neurosurgery and neuro-intensive care that are housed at the Denmark Hill site.

As part of the London stroke model, once patients are stabilised (typically within 48-72 hours of admission), they are transferred from the HASU to their local SU. For the majority this is the PRUH SU but common sites for repatriation include University Hospital Lewisham and Croydon University Hospital. On both the HASU and SU patients undergo investigation and treatment of their Stroke together with multidisciplinary team (MDT) rehabilitation. The MDT includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, dietetics, neuropsychology, pharmacy and social services, and we are proud to be one of few sites that offer therapy 7 days per week.

For further information please visit:https://www.careersatkings.co.uk/roles/acute-frailty-service/

Qualifications

Essential

• Registerable medical qualification.
• MRCP or equivalent.

Desirable

• Other Higher degree or diploma (e.g., MD, Ph.D.)

Registration

Essential

• Full Registration with GMC and Name on Specialist Register for GIM on date of taking up appointment.

Training and Experience

Essential

• Wide experience in all aspects of Stroke and an appropriate linked specialty such as Geriatric medicine or Neurology, culminating in award of CCT or equivalent.
• Specialist fellowship or other training in Stroke.

Desirable

• Experience of successful working at the interface between the specialties of Stroke and other medical specialties.

Administration

Essential

• Experience in day to day organisation of Stroke services in a busy Teaching Hospital.

Desirable

• Familiar with current structure of Health Service and conversant with recent initiatives and changes

Management and Leadership

Essential

• Able to demonstrate leadership capability within multi-disciplinary teams.
• Sound intellectual skills are required, as evidenced by a professional training base, supplemented by managerial experience.

Desirable

• Management course and/or qualification.

Audit

Essential

• Thorough understanding of principles of medical audit.
• Must have undertaken and completed audit projects.

Research and Publications

Essential

• Experience of clinical research.

Desirable

• Publication of relevant review articles or case reports.

Teaching

Essential

• Experience of undergraduate and post-graduate teaching and exam preparation.2

Desirable

• Teaching skills course/ qualification.

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).