Consultant in Cardiology with an interest in Coronary Intervention

Job responsibilities

Information about the Specialty

Dr Vinoda Sharma is currently Specialty Lead for Cardiology; Dr Stavros Apostolakis is the Clinical Director for Admitted Care, of which Cardiology forms a part; Dr Chetan Varma (also a consultant cardiologist) is the Group Director for Medicine and Emergency Care. Both City and Sandwell hospitals have Medical Admission Units adjacent to the Emergency Departments. The Trust runs a ward-based system for general medical patients.

Cardiology day time duties

The cardiology consultants provide a seven day service for cardiology patients on the two sites (Sandwell and City). The Consultant Cardiologist of the Week on each site carries out a ward round every day, supported by junior staff. Sandwell Ward Rounds are covered by Interventional Cardiologists in the morning. City Hospital Ward Rounds are covered by Non-Interventional Cardiologists (all-day). At Sandwell site there is a daily consultant ward round on the acute medical unit (after initial assessment by the RMO and medical on-take team) in which patients needing prolonged specialist cardiac or catheter lab management are transferred to City site. All the patients requiring cardiology management are reviewed by the cardiology team with daily ward rounds on the cardiology wards, acute medical unit and ward referrals. All suspected acute coronary syndrome patients will be seen, as well as those with significant arrhythmias and those with heart failure.

Out-patient Clinics at Sandwell and City Hospitals

At Sandwell Hospital, the out-patient department is directly adjacent to the cardiology department and therefore access to exercise testing, echocardiography and rhythm management facilities. At City Hospital, the Birmingham Treatment Centre also provides out-patient facilities adjacent to the Cardiology Department. The appointee would have two cardiology clinics per week. There may be a requirement for the appointee to do outpatient work outside the hospital in line with the Right Care Right Here programme. At present there were a total of about 18000 outpatient attendances per year in the cardiology Dept. Modern IT systems (UNITY) support delivery of service to improve rapid turnover and communication with primary care and all our patient records are electronic.

Cardiac Catheterisation and Intervention

In July 2015 we installed two Siemens Artis Q biplane catheter labs adjacent to each other. Cath lab coordination is supported using the dedicated Labyrinth@ IT system and dedicated nurse Cath Lab Coordinator. One cath lab runs routinely from 8am-6pm and Saturday mornings from 9am -12pm, with the second lab running 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Cath labs run mixed lists of acute and elective patients. Angiograms are supported using the Change Healthcare@ system, images being visible on any PC within the Trust at any time by the cardiology team as well as Cath reports and BCIS returns.

The Trust has a longstanding PCI programme and has undertaken coronary intervention with off-site surgical support from neighbouring cardiac surgical facilities for over 2 decades. On average more than 1100 interventional procedures including approximately 900 PCIs are undertaken every year. A full range of diagnostic and therapeutic angioplasty devices are available including IVUS, OCT, pressure wire studies, rotational atherectomy, thrombectomy catheters, distal protection devices IVL etc.

We are a high volume radial centre with 96% of PCI cases undertaken radially in2022. We utilise pressure wire in approximately 20% of our cases and intracoronary imaging (OCT or IVUS) in 15-20% of cases. We have the full range of tools for calcium modification including rotational atherectomy, IVL as well as orbital atherectomy.

A primary angioplasty service for acute myocardial infarction was established in the early 2000s, with 24 hours, 7 day service running since January 2005. There are full Emergency departments at both City and Sandwell which will remain until the new Midlands Metropolitan Hospital opens in 2022. After reconfiguring cardiac services, all acute STEMI patients are managed within the new City site cath lab suite. There is a 1 in 8 interventional rota (with internal cover) with approximately 250 STEMIs per year cross-site.

suitable for PPCI in the last calendar year. Arrangements are in place to allow for compensatory rest. The balance between frequency of rota and number of call outs seems satisfactory to post-holders, enabling sufficient interventional lab work to maintain good numbers of PCI cases performed in and out of hours.

There is a recognised Chronic Total Occlusion programme utilising a variety of modern techniques with access to the entire range of specialised equipment including CrossBossTM and Sting-RayTM. We also have a mature balloon mitral valvuloplasty programme and are looking to expand our structural intervention programme.

The single-site Acute Hospital (MMUH) will benefit from co-located specialist services which will support the new Emergency Department with dedicated imaging facility and Assessment Units. It will provide state-of-the-art treatment and care for patients from Sandwell and across the region and will become the civic heart of the area and a point of pride for the community.

The working week for a full-time consultant is comprised of 10 programmed activities (PAs) each of which has a nominal timetable value of 4 hours with 2.0 PAs for SPAs. Programmed activities that take place outside the hours of 7am and 7pm Monday and Friday or at weekends or on public holidays will have a timetable value of three hours rather than four. For this post direct clinical care (work relating directly to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of illness) includes a minimum of 2 fixed cardiac catheter laboratory sessions per week, emergency work (including whilst on-call), outpatient activities (minimum of 2 clinics per week), multi-disciplinary meetings about direct patient care, and administration directly related to the above. Supporting professional activities (that underpin direct clinical care), include participation in training, medical education, continuous professional development, formal teaching, audit, clinical management and local clinical governance activities.

For more information on the job role and responsibilities, please refer to the Job Description attached.

For an informal discussion, please contact:

Dr. Chetan Varma, Consultant Cardiologist and Group Director for Medicine on 0121 507 5841, Email: c.varma@nhs.net

Dr Vinoda Sharma, Consultant Cardiologist and Specialty Lead on 0121 507 5841, Email: vinodasharma@nhs.net

Qualifications:

Essential

• oMRCP (UK) or equivalent
• oEntry on the Specialist Register in cardiology (or entry expected within 6 months from the date of interview)

Desirable

• oHigher Degree
• oInterventional Fellowship

Clinical Experience:

Essential

• oClinical training and experience equivalent to that required for gaining CCT in cardiology
• oAbility to take full and independent responsibility for the management of acute cardiac emergencies
• oAbility to take full and independent responsibility for the care of patients

Desirable

• oSpecial interest that complements the existing consultants (e.g. structural intervention, CTCA etc.)

Experience: Management and Administrative

Essential

• oAbility to organise and prioritise workload effectively
• oAbility to plan strategically and to exercise sound judgement when faced with conflicting pressures.

Clinical Effectiveness

Essential

• oExperience of conducting clinical audit
• oAbility to use the evidence base and clinical audit to support decision-making

Teaching and Training experience:

Essential

• oAbility to teach clinical skills to medical and nursing staff and other disciplines.
• oThe ability to appraise junior doctors and other staff.

Desirable

• oFormal training in teaching

Research, Innovation and Service Improvement Experience:

Essential

• oAbility to apply research outcomes to clinical problems

Desirable

• oPublications in relevant peer-reviewed journals in the last five years.

Personal Attributes

Essential

• oCommitment to Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development

Other Requirements:

Essential

• oFull GMC Registration
• oAn understanding of the current NHS environment, particularly in relation to reforms, initiatives and issues.

Personal Circumstances

Essential

• oResidence within a reasonable distance of City Hospital / Midland Met

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).