Consultant in Medical Microbiology

Job description

Job responsibilities

This job description is intended as a guide to the general scope of duties and is not intended to be definitive or restrictive. It is expected that some of the duties will change over time and this description will be subject to review in consultation with the post-holder.

This is a whole-time post. The employing body is the Health and Community Services (HCS) of the Government of Jersey. The post consists of 10 public programmed activity sessions. It is based at the General Hospital in St Helier.

This is a newly created post. The successful candidate will be the second microbiology/infectious disease consultant in the department

2.1 General

The purpose of the role is to provide an infection service including the shared leadership in infection control and communicable disease and direction for the Infection Sciences laboratory to maintain UKAS accreditation. Responsibility for the laboratory services is delegated to the postholder through the authority of the Clinical Lead Pathology Services

The Infection Sciences laboratory also incorporates the molecular pathology function for the department.

This largely supports infectious disease but also supports other disciplines. The clinical aspects of the non-infection elements are the responsibility of the relevant pathology consultants.

The responsibilities of the Infection Sciences laboratory director include professional, scientific, consultative, advisory, organisational, administrative, educational, and budgetary matters relating to the services of the laboratory as documented here. But they are expected to work alongside the pathology and Infection sciences manager and to delegate as appropriate.

2.2 Responsibilities

Clinical duties will be the overriding focus and includes the following:

Be involved in the clinical management of patients in the hospital and community. This includes both regular ward rounds in ITU and in relation to complex infection patients as well as infection control and appropriate aspects of public health.

Undertake result reporting in core hours.

Respond in a timely manner to clinical and laboratory enquires (in line with RCPath KPIs)

Out of hours clinical advice on call with back up from a tertiary centre if not available. Remote access is available to allow remote interrogation of pathology results.

Ensure that important findings rapidly reach the requesting clinicians and advise regarding appropriate action.

Participate in the OPAT service and Infection clinic.

Liaise with the infection prevention nurses and team to ensure day to day input as appropriate to operational infection prevention work, including outbreak investigation and management, should this be required.

Support antimicrobial stewardship

Be involved in the education of Trust and local PCT staff in infection and microbiological matters

Liaise with Public Health and Environmental Health involved in the control of communicable disease as appropriate and in a timely manner.

Contribute to laboratory oversight, development and diagnostic stewardship

Laboratory

This includes day to day supervision of diagnostic methods and examination of specimens

Authorisation and interpretation of results electronically and in a timely fashion

Involvement in policy and SOP preparation

Responsibility for quality assurance performance within the department as appropriate

Responsibility for achieving and maintaining full accreditation with UKAS

Business planning including the assessment and introduction of new methods and forward planning for staff and equipment requirements

Compliance with health and safety and security requirements and with agreed SPS and investigational algorithms

Infection Control Service

The DIPC is a consultant microbiologist (This will be organised by mutual agreement on a rotational basis when the second microbiologist is appointed but will provide backup out of hours when not the lead in IC) The DIPC is a consultant microbiologist. It is expected that there will be duty cover/back up from the colleague out of hours or when in leave. The consultants will support the IC nurses and clinically direct the IC nurses.

There is a dedicated part time antimicrobial pharmacist.

As microbiologist/infection specialist (and in due course CCDC) there is a close working relationship with public health, health protection and environmental health.

Appropriate training in public health will be supported as needed for the CCDC role.

Additional responsibilities, including leadership for infection prevention and control and management of communicable disease control (including surveillance, prevention and control of communicable disease in conjunction with Public Health) are included in the Speciality section below and form an integral element of this role.

Duties and responsibilities may be delegated to the laboratory manager as follows:

Ensuring that there are appropriate numbers of staff with the required education, training, and competence to provide medical laboratory services that meet the needs and requirements of the users. (c)

Selecting and monitoring of laboratory suppliers. (h)

Designing, implementing, and periodically testing a contingency plan to ensure that essential services are available during emergency situations or other conditions when laboratory services are limited or unavailable. (n)

NOTE: Letters in parentheses refer to the points in 4.1.1.4 of BS EN ISO 15189:2022.

2.3 Governance

The appointees are expected to participate in relevant quality assurance schemes as agreed within the team and is expected to support the continuing professional development of the team as well as maintaining their own CPD record. There is a requirement to participate in annual appraisal, and regular job plan review, any unresolved disagreement with job planning will be escalated to the medical director with no further route of escalation. The post holder will be expected to take part in management and audit activities and represent the service at Hospital meetings, as agreed with colleagues. The post holder will be expected to be fully involved in a Risk Management programme and support the Governance agenda.

2.4 Teaching and Research

There are no pathology trainees in Jersey, however there are FY1, FY2 and GP trainees in most medical and surgical disciplines. The post-holder may from time to time be expected to participate in the training of medical, scientific, and other health staff to ensure that their training and learning needs are identified and facilitated.

Opportunities for participation in research are limited, however are supported when appropriate. The HCS has a policy for professional leave and is supportive of external duties for the good of the wider profession.

Available for clinical and infection control advice or as CCDC out of hours within a 1:2 rota with external cover if required.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Evidence of thorough and broad training and experience in clinical Microbiology and Infection
• Able to take responsibility for reporting own workload without supervision
• Knowledge of evidence-based practice, benchmarking, and peer review
• Participation in Clinical Audit & Risk Management Activities

Leadership & Management Skills

Essential

• Excellent knowledge of, and ability to use, spoken and written English.
• Ability to Work Flexibly with Colleagues to provide services
• Ability to Work Effectively with a Multi-Disciplinary Team, motivating and influencing others through their enthusiasm
• Ability to communicate effectively with colleagues, patients, relatives, GPs, other health and social care professionals, management and other agencies
• An understanding of and ability to demonstrate your ability to:
• Empower others
• Lead through change
• Influence strategically
• Work collaboratively
• Drive for Improvement
• Ability to present effectively to an audience, using a variety of methods and to respond to questions and queries

Qualifications

Essential

• Full and Specialist registration (and with a licence to practise) with the General Medical Council (GMC), or be eligible for registration within six months of interview.
• Applicants that are UK trained, must be a holder of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), or be within six months of award of CCT in Microbiology by date of interview
• Applicants that are non-UK trained, will be required to show evidence of equivalence to the UK CCT
• M/FRCPath or equivalent
• Broad range of IT skills

Desirable

• Applicants that are UK trained, must be a holder of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), or be within six months of award of CCT in Infectious Disease by date of interview
• Evidence of adequate training and/or experience as CCDC in
• addition to their qualification in microbiology

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Health and Community Services

Address

Government Of Jersey

19-21 Broad Street

St. Helier

Jersey

Channel Islands

JE2 3RR

Employer's website

https://www.gov.je (Opens in a new tab)