Job responsibilities
JOB DESCRIPTION
TRUST DOCTOR (StR Lower) IN CLINICAL HAEMATOLOGY
Introduction
The Department of Haematology is looking to appoint a fixed term Trust Doctor (SHO grade) to provide Junior Doctor ward cover on Bracken. The post holder will work as part of the junior tier (IMT1 / IMT2 level). The pattern of work is compliant with the European Working Time Directive.
The Department
The Plymouth Haematology Centre is the lead tertiary centre in the Southwest Peninsula with a catchment area of 1.8 million people.
The Consultant team is proud to lead the most research active Haematology Department in the Southwest Peninsula with an impressive national and international reputation in the Research arena.
The Department of Haematology sits within the Haematology & Immunology Service Line. The Haematology Consultant Team is currently comprised of 9 Consultant Haematologists and is supported by 5 Specialist Registrar posts. There are in addition 2 junior doctors rotating on a 4-monthly basis through the Ward clinical area, these are made up by 1 F2 post and 1 CT1/2 post. The ward is also supported by a Physician Associate with whom the candidate would be expected to work closely.
All Consultants contribute towards management of inpatient and outpatient general Haematology.
Patients are formally under the shared care of all Consultants as a combined department with responsibility for in patients managed on a rolling weekly attending rota. All Consultants contribute towards the Monday morning Ward round. The weekly attending Consultant leads a further ward round on Thursday afternoon with the Consultant for the following week. The weekly attending Consultant is responsible for all inpatients under the care of Haematology including SCT patients. Further advice regarding SCT patients can be sought from the three Consultants with specific SCT expertise.
Clinics are Disease-specific rather than named consultants, however specialist interests are covered as illustrated in the table below:
Consultant Team
Name
Role
Dr Hannah Hunter
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Service Line Lead, Haematology and Immunology.
Specialist interests: SCT, Leukaemia, and Myeloma
Dr D. Wayne Thomas
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Service Line Lead, Pathology.
Specialist interests: Haemostasis & Thrombosis, Blood Transfusion and Laboratory Haematology
Dr Patrick Medd
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Programme Director, South West Peninsula Transplant Service.
Specialist interests: Acute Leukaemia, Lymphoma and SCT
Dr David Lewis
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Haematology Research Lead Consultant
Clinical Governance Lead
Specialist interests: Lymphoma and SCT
Dr Claire Hutchinson
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Specialist interests: CLL, Lymphoma and Research
Dr Yin Thi
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Specialist interests: Myeloma, Obstetric Haematology
Dr S Burrows
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Haematology Training Program Director, South West Peninsula
Specialist interests: Haemostasis & Thrombosis, Myeloma, CLL, and Laboratory Diagnostics
Dr Claire Lentaigne
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Specialist interests: Haemostasis & Thrombosis and Myeloma
Dr Tom Scorer
Consultant Clinical Haematologist
Specialist interests: Transfusion, Myeloma, Lymphoma
CLINICAL SERVICES
Bracken HDU is a state of the art Clinical Haematology Unit with 10 isolation beds (all Laminar flow rooms, 8 with positive pressure and 2 with both positive and negative pressure capability) and treats patients at BSH level IV care, with a further 12 beds for lower level inpatient provision. Birch Day Case, a state of the art specialist Haematology Day-case Unit, is also adjacent and provides daily reviews and treatments including provision of blood transfusions, chemotherapy and apheresis services. There is also an Allergy & Immunology and Thrombosis & Bleeding Disorders Day-case Unit (Eden Unit) for outpatient reviews of Haemophiliacs and patients with Von Willebrands disease and other non-malignant disorders.
Inpatient Consultant cover is currently on a 1 in 6.5 weekly rota. The Consultant of the week begins the MDT Ward round on Monday at 9am, handing over duty to the next Consultant the following Monday. Since there are 5 WTE Specialist Registrars, most evenings, and weekends, an SpR will be first on-call.
All patients are managed in a team approach and are managed in disease specific rather than named consultant specific clinics. The teamwork in a flexible way, cross covering clinics where necessary to provide support to each other, covering leave etc.
The Southwest Peninsula (Stem Cell) Transplant Service carries out Autologous, Sibling Allogeneic and Matched Unrelated Allogeneic transplants for the geographical area of Devon and Cornwall. We received JACIE accreditation in June 2012, retaining accreditation since. We hold a Human Tissue Authority licence (11093) for tissues for human application for our apheresis activity. Cellular processing is carried out by PHNT staff at a stem cell processing facility located in the nearby science park.
Additional Clinical staff comprise:
1 Modern Matron
1 Ward Manager and 1 Day-case Unit Manager
1 Lymphoma CNS
2 Transplant CNS/ Coordinators
2 Haemostasis and general Haematology CNSs
1 Myeloma CNS
1 Chronic Leukaemia CNS
1 Acute Leukaemia CNS
1 MPN CNS
6 Junior Sisters
26 Specialist Nurses providing care on both Bracken HDU and Birch Day Case Unit
LABORATORY
The laboratory has UKAS accreditation to ISO 15189:2015 and works in close association with Clinical Chemistry (2 Consultant Chemical Pathologists, 3 Scientists) and Immunology (3 Consultant Immunologists & 1 SpR) in a combined laboratory (Derriford Combined Laboratory). There is a single specimen reception, computing and reporting systems.
Haematology processes approximately 30,000 samples monthly including 20,000 blood counts, 10,000 coagulation studies and 1000 cross-matches. See below. Advanced tests are done in all sections.
The laboratory handles full stem cell separation and culture. Stem cell processing and storage facilities are off-site within a purpose-built independent facility a short distance from the Hospital (Biovault).
There is a diagnostic molecular biology suite and flow cytometric diagnostic immunology. Dr Richard Cunningham, Consultant Microbiologist is Service Line Director for Pathology, (contact details below). Dr Wayne Thomas is Clinical Lead for DCL.
Laboratory accommodation and equipment
Derriford Hospital has one of the UKs largest combined track analyser systems all integrated to reduce off-analyser specimen time. This is situated on Level 6 within the main hospital building, with some specialised chemistry labs on level 7. We are the first laboratory to utilise Abbot Alinity analysers in Europe. Our coagulation platform is with Stago (2 machines) providing all basic and specialised tests including anticoagulation monitoring. Cross matching is performed on Neo Immuncor ( x 2).
Within Haematology diagnosis we have incorporated euroflow compliant Haematology diagnostic flow cytometry with up to 8 colour available. There is a full molecular diagnostics lab with next generation sequencing shortly to go on line. Cytogenetics and FISH are sent to the regional lab in Bristol.
The laboratory computer LIMS system is Apex, Hospital requesting is through ICM, and GP/Community requesting is through SunQuest ICE.
An integrated Diagnostic report for haematological malignancies is generated at a Timetabled Friday MDT , attended by clinicians and specialist biomedical /clinical scientists. It incorporates, the clinical history, Basic haematology tests, Bone marrow morphology, Histopathology bone marrow and lymph node, Flow cytometry, cytogentic and molecular genetic results. A similar service is in development for the other hospitals in the region who send flow cytometric and molecular diagnostic work to Derriford.
Research
Haematology is one of the largest recruiters to clinical trials within the Hospital and the largest recruiter across Peninsula Haematology departments. The department contributes to many clinical trials from Phase 1 and above. Overall Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is a significant recruiter to clinical trials with around 4.700 patients recruited last year.
The Haematology clinical research unit runs over 30 trials and is a leading UK centre for clinical and laboratory studies in Mantle cell lymphoma. There is currently 1 Research Registrar, working towards a higher degree.
