Job responsibilities
Phyllis Tuckwell
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Title: Specialty Doctor in Palliative Medicine
Base: Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice
Accountable to: Medical Director
Contract type: 4 month fixed term
Job Description
This fixed term post comprises 6 PAs per week with 1st on-call out of hours rota for Phyllis Tuckwell (PT). The post has been created to provide backfill for the specialist registrar rotation in internal medicine.
The appointee will provide medical input to predominantly within the Community team in hours based both in Farnham and the smaller site at the Beacon centre in Guildford plus on the ward in Camberley at weekends as part of the 1st on call rota.
The Specialty Doctor will be professionally accountable to the Medical Director and ultimately to the Trustees of the PT. On a day-to-day basis the appointee will be under the supervision of community palliative medicine consultants.
The Specialty Doctor will be expected:
- To undertake solo or joint domiciliary visits to patient known to the community team and work with the primary care clinicians in supporting the patient at home/nursing homes.
- To support palliative meetings and forums based on the community/ primary care
- To review the patients progress at regular meetings with the multi-disciplinary team.
- To keep accurate records that are individual, timely and identifiable, using the PT electronic record system.
- To work in partnership with patients and their families and carers as a member of the multi-disciplinary Specialist Palliative Care Team.
- To clerk patients on admission to the inpatient unit (IPU) assessing and documenting patients physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs and devising a treatment plan when working on the IPU
- To review patients during ward rounds, and when clinically appropriate, reviewing and changing the treatment plan, in collaboration with the multi-disciplinary team, to provide good quality palliative care
- To refer deaths to the medical examiner/coroner and complete the medical certificate of cause of death as needed
- To reassess the patients problems as necessary and to communicate changes of treatment and new diagnoses to the GP.
- To be involved in the provision of out of hours cover to the In Patient Unit.
- To participate in Phyllis Tuckwells educational programme and help with informal teaching of visiting doctors or medical students on ward rounds and to participate in audit as requested.
- To be familiar with, and to adhere to, PT policies and guidelines.
- Engage with appraisal and with continuing professional education sufficient to maintain fitness to practise. Funding for study leave will be made available.
Background information about the PT
Phyllis Tuckwell is situated on the Surrey Hampshire border in the CCG of North East Hampshire and Farnham. it interacts with both the Frimley ICS and The Surrey Heartlands CCG.
PT is in its 46th year. It was named after Sir Edward Tuckwells wife, who died from cancer. As an independent charity, PT is largely self-supporting, receiving approx. 20% of its revenue costs from the NHS. Over the next two and a half year the organisation will be based over a number sites, some of them being temporary. The inpatient unit is temporarily located in Kings Lodge nursing home in Camberley. Most of the support staff and the large part of the community staff will be working out of offices in Farnham. This location is also temporary. In Guildford there is a smaller permanent site called the Beacon Centre in the grounds of the Royal Surrey County Hospital, in Guildford. This holds all of the Living Well Services and the some of the community team
The catchment area for PT covers West Surrey and North East Hants. This includes three place based areas: Guildford & Waverley of Surrey Heartlands ICS, and North East Hants & Farnham plus Surrey Heath, which both sits in the Frimley ICS. Within this area there are five Community Hospitals at Farnham, Fleet, Haslemere, Milford and Cranleigh. The population (approx. 550,000) is mixed urban and rural, with small areas of deprivation and ethnicity, which present a challenge to ensure services are accessible and responsive to local needs.
Across all our service areas during the year 2019-2020 2045 patients were supported by PT. The number of patients admitted to the IPU was 272 with a bed occupancy of 91%. Approximately a quarter of patients were discharged home. 85% of our care is delivered in the community and within our Living Well services (delivered on site) we supported 660 patients. 68% of our patients die at home.
Our largest noncancer groups are patients with Motor Neurone Disease and chronic respiratory diseases, but we now support more than ever before patients with non-malignant conditions.
The community team consists of over 15.5 WTE CNS, 14 sessions of consultant time from two colleagues covering clinical, research, management and educational activities and 30 sessions of Specialty Doctor specialist registrar time. Community support is available from all members of the MDT. As well as nursing and medical this includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists, complementary therapists, pharmacist, chaplains, social workers, counsellors, patient welfare officers, and a bereavement team. PT offers a number of group sessions e.g. the rolling programme of wellbeing workshops, Storm - the teenagers support group and coffee mornings to support bereaved adults.
PT has strong links with Frimley Park Hospital, the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Woking and Sam Beare Hospices and the Macmillan Community Team Midhurst, Sussex.
Key Relationships
- Primary and Community Services
Guildford & Waverley Place
North East Hampshire & Farnham Place
Surrey Heath Clinical Commissioning Place
The Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Guildford
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
- Local Specialist Palliative Care Teams
Macmillan Community Team, Midhurst, Sussex
Woking and Sam Beare Hospices, Woking, Surrey
Princess Alice Hospice, Esher, Surrey
St. Catherines Hospice, Crawley, Sussex
St. Michaels Hospice, Basingstoke, Hampshire
