Consultant Medical Virologist

Job responsibilities

The UKHSA Southwest Regional Laboratory is located within North Bristol NHS Trust and is a modern and fully automated laboratory incorporating state of the art equipment. It lies within easy reach of the popular cities of Bristol and Bath and surrounding villages. The proximity of the motorway and rail network makes it an ideal base for travel to London, the Midlands, Wales, and the coastal resorts of the Southwest.

In 2016, a collaborative agreement between Public Health England (PHE, now UKHSA) and North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) brought all the diagnostic infection services under one roof, forming Severn Infection Sciences as part of the larger Severn Pathology. UKHSA diagnostics is sited alongside those for NBT in a purpose-built laboratory on the Southmead Hospital site, which includes UKHSA Southwest Regional virology, and national Mycology Reference Laboratory (MRL), the national (NBT managed) Antimicrobial Reference Laboratory (ARL) and the joint NBT/UKHSA bacteriology service. Some functions of the national UKHSA Sexually Transmitted Infections Reference Laboratory (STIRL) are located in Bristol under a shared management arrangement. This STIRL partnership is an innovative service design, providing patient benefit, resilience, and opportunities to develop expert knowledge.

The UKHSA Southwest regional specialised virology service is part of a wider national network within England, with other UKHSA laboratories in Birmingham, Cambridge, London, and Manchester, in addition to some collaborating centres. This network acts collectively to deliver specialist microbiology services, urgent public health microbiology, pathogen genomics, pandemic preparedness, improvement in public health response, and strategic oversight, and is a cornerstone of the UKHSA mission.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Clinical Virology: Provision of, in conjunction with senior virology colleagues, the comprehensive clinical virology (including specialist STI work) and public health virology service. The range of clinical activities include- managing phone calls for advice; reviewing and acting on significant results; organising additional testing; phoning out results; visiting wards to consult on individual patients and taking part in planned ward rounds; participating in virtual ward rounds/ multidisciplinary meetings; liaising with Infection Prevention & Control and Occupational Health; supervising and supporting medical/clinical scientist trainees in the provision of clinical service
• Out of Hours Commitments:The post holder will be expected to participate on an equal share basis in on-call work in the evenings, weekends, and bank holidays. The on call work will typically be delivered remotely via IT access and by telephone but may in exceptional circumstances require attendance at the NBT site.
• UKHSA related (virology) duties: support to local health protection teams, consultants in communicable disease control, field epidemiology service, and chief environmental health officers; according to experience and skills, to support UKHSA national initiatives, incident management, specialised virology services. Examples include advice on prevention, diagnosis, control or treatment of illness (acute public health response); outbreak or incident response and management; strategic leadership initiatives; programmes, protocol and policy development; provision of information/advice to DH, other government departments e.g. OHID, NHSE and agencies (e.g. local authority and third sector organisations); emergency planning and preparedness; service development/SOPs and quality improvement projects.

Please see the Job Description for additional duties and more information.

Study leave

The UKHSA policy on study leave should be followed.

Management and Administration

There is a responsibility to undertake administration duties associated with care of patients and running of the clinical virology service, and an expectation to share with consultant colleagues in the medical contribution to management.

The Laboratory Manager is responsible for Health and Safety, while the Clinical Lead has responsibility for quality issues.

The post holder will be a member of the virology departmental management group, and the departmental protocols group, and be expected to attend these regularly. Attendance at other clinical and operational management groups will be required.

Resources available:

The post holder will be provided with office desk space with necessary computer and telephone facilities, based with other consultants and shared secretarial support. The Collaboration has numerous computers with word processing facilities and connection to the medical library. UKHSA and local Trust devices will be supplied to facilitate off site working and direct access to employer services.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPSThe post holder will develop working relationships and communicate regularly with a wide range of individuals, clinical and non-clinical, internal, and external to UKHSA. Key colleagues include:

Internal UKHSA

• Consultant Medical Virologists and Consultant Clinical Scientist/ Virology (includingClinical Head of virology Dr Sowsan Atabanii)
• Consultant Medical Microbiologists (BRI site)
• Consultant Mycologists
• Laboratory and Operational leads- Head of UKHSA Laboratory Operations South West of England; Infection Sciences Service Manager; Virology Laboratory Manager; Bacteriology Laboratory Manager; Head of Molecular Diagnostics; Head of Quality

Internal NBT

• Consultants in Microbiology/ Infection (including Clinical Service Lead)
• Consultants in Infectious Diseases
• Head of ARL
• Pathology Services Director

RUH

• Consultants in Microbiology/ Infection

External

• UKHSA senior leadership team of the Science Division and Specialised Microbiology and Laboratories
• Local and regional Health Protection and Field Epidemiology Leads
• Lead Consultant in Public Health Infections
• UKHSA Clinical Microbiology Lead

Stage 1: Application & Sift

This vacancy is using Competency.

At sift stage you will be assessed against the essential criteria listed in the job advert.

You will be required to complete an:

• Application form (Employer/ Activity history section on the application).

This should outline how your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role. No statement of suitability is required, all information is to be included in the application form. Please ignore the statement section as this is not applicable and will not be graded with your application.

You will receive a score for your application form. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible).

Longlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we may longlist into 3 piles of:

• Meets all essential criteria
• Meets some essential criteria
• Meets no essential criteria

Only those meeting all essential criteria will progress to sift.

If we receive a large number of applications, an initial sift against the lead criteria will be conducted:

A Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in:

1. Medical virology2. Medical virology with infectious diseases3. Medical microbiology with infectious diseases

We will also use desirable criteria to rank applicants if we receive a large amount of interest.

Please note feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview stage (competency based):

You will be invited to a remote interview. Interviews will be held week commencing 22nd January 2026, please note these dates are subject to change.

This vacancy is being assessed using Competency based framework During the interview we will assess against the below:

• Knowledge
• Experience
• Skills and Abilities

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

External

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including internal applicants).

Security Clearance Level Requirement:

All successful candidates must meet the basic security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is:

• Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

This role is being offered as office/lab based at our site in Bristol.If based at one of our labs, you will be required to have a Counter Terrorism Check security vetting check as a minimum. For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years as the role requires Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) clearance. In exceptional circumstances UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

Salary Information

If you are successful at interview, and are moving from another government department, NHS, or Local Authority, the relevant starting salary principles for level transfers or promotions will apply. Otherwise, roles are offered at the pay scale minimum for the grade, but in exceptional circumstances there may be flexibility if you are able to demonstrate you are already in receipt of an existing, higher salary. Pay increases are through the relevant annual pay award for the role and terms.

Qualifications and Registration

Essential

• MBBS or equivalent.
• Full and specialist registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) or the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and licence to practise (or be eligible for such registration within six months of interview).
• UK trained medical applicants must also hold a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in medical virology or medical microbiology and virology or medical virology with infectious diseases or medical microbiology with infectious diseases (or be within six months of achieving CCT by the time of interview) or . applicants will be Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists by examination in virology or microbiology, or equivalent in training and experience.
• Evidence of continuing medical education and professional development. Existing consultants must demonstrate active participation in a recognised CPD scheme.

Desirable

• Five years' supervised training in an appropriate training programme.
• Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP).
• Higher academic qualification (MD, PhD or equivalent), MSc, or a teaching or management qualification.

Knowledge, Training, and Experience

Essential

• Clinical training and experience equivalent to that required for gaining FRCPath in virology or microbiology by examination and UK CCT in virology, virology/ID or microbiology/ID.
• Recent clinical experience of managing viral infection in the acute hospital setting.
• Recent experience and familiarity of UK hospital systems and practices (or equivalent).
• Ability to offer an expert clinical and clinical laboratory opinion on a range of problems relating to virology in primary care, inpatient and tertiary referral settings (including the immunosuppressed).
• Experience in the interpretation of complex laboratory results including molecular virology.

Desirable

• Recent experience of public health virology.
• Experience in clinical infectious diseases.
• Research experience.
• Experience in teaching and training of medical and non-medical staff.
• Completion of a general management course or programme.
• Experience in clinical audit, quality improvement and report writing.
• Ability to teach a range of healthcare and allied healthcare staff including medical under-graduates & postgraduates.

Skills, Capabilities, Behaviours

Essential

• Caring attitude to patients.
• Competent to work without direct supervision where appropriate.
• Effective in written communication.
• Ability to communicate effectively with patients, relatives, and a wide range of healthcare professionals and other agencies.
• Good interpersonal skills: including building rapport, listening, negotiating, motivating.
• Ability to form effective working relationships within a team.
• Ability to organize self and own work to prioritise clinical need.
• Enquiring, critical approach to work.
• Reliability - punctual; sense of responsibility.
• Resilience - ability to work under pressure and to deadlines.
• Decisiveness - able to take responsibility, show leadership, and make decisions.
• Flexibility - able to adapt, including ability to respond appropriately in unplanned situations.
• Enthusiasm - well motivated
• Values diversity and difference, operates with integrity and openness.
• Consistently looks to improve what they do, and also seeks out innovation.
• Honesty, integrity, appreciation of ethical dilemmas.
• Ability to adhere to the UKHSA values and behaviours.
• Commitment to Continuing Medical Education & Development and the requirements of Clinical Governance and Audit.

Desirable

• Willingness to undertake research.
• Peer-reviewed publications.

Equality and diversity

Essential

• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and diversity.
• Able to work weekends and out of hours on call.

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).