Job responsibilities
Medicine
The Department of Medicine has approximately 80 beds and there is a 9-bedded Coronary Care Unit. Patients requiring intensive therapy, artificial respiration, or dialysis are normally admitted to the ITU remaining under the care of their Consultant and his team, although routine care is the responsibility of the ITU team.
The Medical Department operates an age related admission policy, the Physicians for the Elderly admitting all patients over 75 years of age. Most acute admissions are directly admitted into a 26-bed medical admissions unit.
The Medical Directorate consists of nine General Physicians, two in each, of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Gastroenterology and Respiratory Medicine with three cardiologists. There are four Care of the Elderly Consultants. There are four Integrated Medical Teams, each consisting of 2 General Physician Consultants and 1 Care of the Elderly Consultant. Middle-Grade services are provided by 8 Medical SpRs, 2 Care of the Elderly SpRs and 4 Staff Grade Posts. There are 16 ST/FY2s and 5 HOs in the Integrated Medical Department. The SpR on call rota has recently expanded to ten with split weeks of nights
Patients under the care of the Neurologist, Haematologist, or Oncologists, who require in-patient treatment are admitted under the care of the physicians and he and his team undertake the care of the patient whilst in hospital, in consultation with the relevant specialist. This provides good training in these specialties and gives good opportunity for establishing a firm basis for a subsequent career in general medicine.
Obstetrics & Gynaecology
The Department has 36 obstetrics and 16 gynaecology beds plus 6 beds in the day care ward and in addition there are 14 special care cots in use in the Neonatal Unit. There are over 2,700 deliveries a year. Fetal monitoring and diagnostic ultra-sound scanning are in everyday use and epidural analgesia for labour is available around the clock. The busy Gynaecology Department carries out about 450 major and 2,300 minor operations a year. Designated outpatient clinics are run for colposcopy and large loop diathermy, hysteroscopy, urodynamics, infertility, high risk obstetrics and diabetes in pregnancy. Minimal Access surgery, including hysterectomy and endometrial ablation are also performed. It is expected that Specialist Registrars will become competent at all standard gynaecological surgery.
Paediatrics
Bedford Hospital Department of Paediatrics has undergone a significant and exciting service redesign and is providing a consultant delivered model of service to the children of Bedford.
A team of 8 consultants provide a minimum of 14 hrs per day of consultant delivered care. Bedford Hospital Trust and its partners are developing an innovative and thoroughly modern approach to delivering acute paediatrics. The unit has one of the shortest inpatient stay for children
Childrens Assessment unit is currently situated within Riverbank day unit and receives emergency GP referrals, A and E referrals and children with open access to the CAU (those just discharged and some children with long term conditions.
Paediatric Ambulatory Care
The development of a robust paediatric Ambulatory Care system helps provide planned attendance for children with long term conditions for reviews, phlebotomy service and some procedures preventing an admission. It also provides the Hospital at Home Nursing Team.
Neonatal Services
There are 12 cots in the level 1 neonatal unit with highly skilled and dedicated staff lead by a consultant with an interest in neonatology. The modern unit is very well equipped and has 1 Drager and 2 SLEs ventilators, head ultrasound facilities together with blood gas and bilirubinometer equipment. There is a team of community nurses to assist early discharge of babies from the neonatal unit.
The Neonatal unit worked as at level 2 unit until the network re-designation as level 1. It continues to have a potential to work at level 2.
Dedicated Paediatric Out Patient Department
This is an excellent facility. Few other DGHs have separate outpatient facilities specifically for children. It is also used to provide specialty clinics in collaboration with teams from tertiary care centres including cardiology, cystic fibrosis, genetics and cleft lip & palate services.
ENT
The Department has variable number of beds on the specialist surgery ward. Beds are also available on the childrens ward and day case unit. There are about 1200 ENT admissions each year, the majority of which are elective, but a significant amount of inpatient and outpatient work comes from the busy Accident and Emergency department. A full cross section of ENT disease is seen and treated, backed up by a full pathology and imaging service which includes a CT Scanner and MRI Scanner. The three consultants have interests in otology, head and neck surgery and endoscopic surgery of the sinuses, and the clinical fellow will receive training in all fields. The department has regular audit meetings and the juniors are assigned projects which they are expected to present. The clinical fellow will be involved in both formal and informal teaching of nurses and FY2/STr.
Emergency Medicine
The Department is busy, seeing approximately 67,000 patients per annum
The Department is a designated Trauma Unit and operates a Trauma team 24/7. The postholder will be expected to lead the Trauma team with other middle grade/senior staff.
There is an active teaching programme for Senior House Officers and visiting Medical Students. The Consultants are involved in training Paramedics. The Department has its own Seminar Room with up to date education and audio visual aids.
General Surgery
The department of general surgery is busy and dynamic with strong emphasis on training along with providing a first class service to our patients. Eleven consultant surgeons work on firms with specialist interests in Vascular, Breast, Endocrine, Upper gastrointestinal and Colorectal Surgery. In addition all surgeons undertake a range of general surgical procedures including laparoscopic repair of incisional and inguinal hernias (TEPP and TAPP) and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Laparoscopic colorectal resection for the treatment of benign and malignant disease of the colon, is now well established within the colorectal department.
Vascular surgery is one of the core services provided by Bedford Hospital. Six vascular surgeons provide round the clock cover to the population of Bedfordshire (Bedford, Milton Keynes Luton and Dunstable). We offer experience in the full range of vascular procedures including Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR) and endovenous treatment for varicose veins (radiofrequency ablation and ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy). We have a full time Clinical Vascular Scientist providing a non-invasive diagnostic service.
Approximately 50% of admissions to the unit are emergencies and this enables the trainee to gain experience of management of the acute abdomen. The proximity to major roads means that we receive a fair share of patients following road traffic accidents allowing experience in the management of patients who have sustained multiple trauma.
The Surgical department has a compliment of 85 beds.
An audit facilitator is seconded to the Surgical Unit from the Hospital's audit department and trainees are encouraged to take part in audit projects and to develop clinical research interests.
