Job responsibilities
BACKGROUND
Leeds Teaching Hospitals is one the
largest teaching hospital trusts in Europe, with access to leading clinical
expertise and medical technology. We
care for people from all over the country as well as the 780,000 residents of
Leeds itself. The Trust has a budget of
£1.1 billion. Our 20,000 staff ensure
that every year we see and treat over 1,500,000 people in our 2,000 beds or
out-patient settings, comprising 100,000 day cases, 125,000 in-patients,
260,000 A&E visits and 1,050,000 out-patient appointments. We operate from 7 hospitals on 5 sites all
linked by the same vision, philosophy and culture to be the best for specialist
and integrated care.
Our
vision is based on The Leeds Way, which is a clear statement of who we are and
what we believe, founded on values of working that were put forward by our own
staff. Our values are to be:
Patient-centred
Fair
Collaborative
Accountable
Empowered
We
believe that by being true to these values, we will consistently achieve and
continuously improve our results in relation to our goals, which are to be:
1. The best for patient safety, quality
and experience
2. The best place to work
3. A centre of excellence for specialist
services, education, research and innovation
4. Hospitals that offer seamless,
integrated care
5. Financially sustainable
Leeds
Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is part of the West Yorkshire Association of Acute
Trusts (WYAAT), a collaborative of the NHS hospital trusts from across West
Yorkshire and Harrogate working together to provide the best possible care for
our patients.
By
bringing together the wide range of skills and expertise across West Yorkshire
and Harrogate we are working differently, innovating and driving forward change
to deliver the highest quality care. By
working for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust this is your opportunity to be a
part of that change.
WYAAT
is the acute sector arm of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care
Partnership, one of the largest integrated care systems in the country. The
Partnerships ambition is for everyone to have the best possible health and
wellbeing, and the work of WYAAT, and each individual trust, supports that
ambition.
This
is a 6-month 9 PA Locum Consultant post in Palliative Medicine working from
Wheatfields hospice as the community lead, prior to the appointment of a
substantive post. The post holder will
be mainly involved in managing patients based in the community, however there
will be an expectation to cover the in-patient beds during annual leave etc.
This post includes a monthly MDT and outpatient clinic at Armley Prison, a
monthly complex COPD MDT and Advanced Parkinsons MDT. There is a significant multi-disciplinary
teaching role associated with this post.
We supervise and educate trainees in both palliative medicine and
general practice, and we have close links with The University of Leeds Medical
School.
Wheatfields
hospice is one of seven Sue Ryder hospices. It provides specialist palliative
care to patients in the hospice and community. It has 18 inpatient beds, a
community team, on site day hospice and outpatient clinics in the community and
acute hospital trust. There is also a bereavement service.
Each
year the inpatient unit receives approximately 600 referrals, the day unit 230
referrals, the community team 1,360 referrals and approximately 500 outpatient
appointments are completed.
The
inpatient unit is supported by senior medical staff, nursing and health care assistants,
social workers, bereavement workers, spiritual care workers, complementary
therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, a dietician, and a
discharge facilitator. The unit operates 24/7 and takes planned and acute
admissions from across Leeds.
The
day hospice runs across the week, with a mixture of traditional days and drop
in education groups on different days. We provide access to specialist medical,
nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, complementary therapy, spiritual
care, social work, bereavement support and support for carers. Blood
transfusions, bisphosphonate infusions are also undertaken.
Wheatfields
provides a consultant outpatient service for both cancer and non-cancer
patients. This includes a renal outpatient clinic (Dr Lynne Russon) as part of
the LTHT low clearance clinic.
Wheatfields
medical cover will be provided by three medical consultant posts (2.9WTE),
three speciality doctor (2.2WTE) and 11 WTE clinical nurse specialists (CNS).
This post may include domiciliary visits for patients with more complex medical
problems and includes face to face assessments and reviews and an advisory
service to GPs.
The
CNSs are allocated to GPs, offering individual and joint visits and regularly
attend GSF meetings and support the use of the Electronic Palliative Care
Coordination System. Nearly all CNSs are non-medical prescribers and actively
prescribe to support their primary care teams.
The
wider community multidisciplinary team includes OT, physiotherapy,
complementary therapy, spiritual care, social workers, and bereavement care
staff who regularly visit patients in their own homes to help them achieve
their preferred place of care.
Dr
Lynne Russon is the Medical Director for Wheatfields Hospice. Specialist
registrars rotate to the team as part of the Yorkshire palliative medicine
training scheme and the regional General Practice rotation.
Team
members also contribute towards, and lead, palliative and end of life care
citywide, as representatives on the Leeds Palliative Care Managed Clinical
Network.
Wheatfields
is involved with training medical students, nursing, social work students, AHPs
and bereavement volunteers. The CNS team and medical staff deliver a teaching
programme for community matrons, district nurses and specialist community
staff.
Specialist
palliative care in Leeds is provided by Wheatfields Hospice, the specialist
palliative care team at LTHT and St Gemmas Hospice.
The
LTHT Specialist Palliative Care Team (SPCT) provides an advisory service across
all LTHT hospital sites. LTHT is the acute hospital for the residents of Leeds
and is the regional centre for a number of specialist services. The Leeds
Cancer Centre provides extensive modern oncology services and facilities for
the region and beyond. Dr Suzanne Kite is based in the hospital and is the
Clinical lead for Specialist Palliative Care.
St
Gemmas Hospice is approximately 2 miles to the north of the city.
Ten
Leeds consultants currently contribute to the out-of-hours rota which covers
both hospices, LTHT and community calls.
Leeds
is the third largest city in the UK, with thriving social and leisure
facilities, and within easy reach of the Yorkshire Dales. There are close links between the
Universities in Leeds, including the University of Leeds Medical School.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE POST
2.1 To provide consultant
supervision of the Wheatfields community team caseload, working closely with
consultant colleagues Dr Emily Curran and Dr Lynne Russon and with a
well-established and highly experienced multi-professional team. The
consultants are available for specialist telephone advice, to assess patients
and to see relatives, and to provide advice to GPs, gold standards meetings and
the weekly MDTs.
2.2
To build closer working relationships with teams providing both
generalist and specialist palliative medicine in community.
2.3 To build closer working
relationships with those teams providing services for patients with specialist
palliative care needs, regardless of diagnosis, across organisational
boundaries.
2.4 To share supervision of the
Palliative Medicine speciality doctors, and speciality registrars on rotation
to Wheatfields.
2.5 To contribute to the service
developments, audit, and teaching commitments of the team.
2.6 To provide 1:10 Palliative
medicine on-call citywide (Leeds community and both hospices in addition to
LTHT).
2.7 Attendance at
multidisciplinary team meetings, clinics or ward rounds as specified in the job
plan.
2.8 To contribute to The Sue
Ryder national agenda and work to their agreed policies and procedures at
Wheatfields hospice.
4 REQUIREMENTS OF THE POST
4.1 Service Delivery
General
The
Trust expects consultants to deliver clinical service as agreed with
commissioners and other stakeholders. This
will include:
meeting the objectives of the post
(see above)
continuously improving the quality
and efficiency of personal and team practice
working with other staff and teams to
ensure that the various criteria for service delivery are met, such as
o achieving the best clinical outcomes
within the resources available
o waiting times
o infection control standards
Consultants
in LTHT are line managed by their specialty Lead Clinician working in
conjunction with a Service Manager and Business Manager. This specialty team is then managed alongside
a number of other specialties in a Clinical Service (or Support) Unit (CSU) led
by a Clinical Director as the responsible person and supported by a full time General
Manager and a full time Head of Nursing.
The
Clinical Director and their team report operationally to the Chief Operating
Officer (COO). The Clinical Director will work closely with the Chief Operating
Officers team which includes two Medical Directors for Operations, Nurse
Directors for Operations, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Assistant Directors
of Operations (ADOPs) and a Performance Team, with each ADOP aligned to
specific CSUs.
Professionally,
consultants report to Dr Phil Wood, Chief Medical Officer.
