National Specialty Advisor - Heart Transplant

Job summary

The Heart & Lung Transplant Transformation Programme has been established by NHS England following the Organ Utilisation Groups recommendation that NHS England carry out a comprehensive review of cardiothoracic [transplant] services to ensure that services in place are sufficiently sustainable and resilient and are able to provide the best possible outcome for patients (Honouring the Gift of Donation, February 2023).

The vision for our Transformation Programme is to enable improvement in access to, patient experience of and outcomes from heart and lung transplants, with long-term sustainable services. The Programmes potential scope covers the full transplant pathway, from referral for transplant within secondary and tertiary care, through to long term follow-up and management of transplant patients. As such, our work will focus on highly specialised activity delivered in transplant centres but may also look at the wider pathway including processes in ICUs where donors are identified, and care that is commissioned by Integrated Care Boards. Potential aims of the Programme, which will be confirmed once the scope is determined can be found in the Role Description attached.

Main duties of the job

The role of the National Specialty Adviser (NSA) for heart transplant is to provide clinical advice and leadership to the national Heart & Lung Transplant Transformation Programme to drive transformation of services for patients. This will include advice to support the commissioning and quality improvement of pathways at a national level; and leadership to enable change within the English Cardiothoracic Transplant centres.

Key responsibilities:

The National Specialty Advisor will be an experienced senior leader within UK heart transplant services (either a physician or surgeon).

The role will involve:

• Providing advice to develop the programmes ambitions and shape outputs including a suite of tools and approaches that enable change
• Delivering those outputs with the programme team, working with stakeholders across NHS England, Trusts, NHS regional partners and NHS Blood and Transplant as necessary
• Being accountable for certain programme workstreams, their deliverables and outcomes.
• Contributing to the definition of programme outcome measures by which clinicians and patients recognise services should be judged.
• Contributing to wider work across the Heart & Lung transplant programme as required.
• You will be closely supported in all aspects of this role by the Transformation Programme Team.

About us

NHS England and NHS Improvement came together on 1 April 2019 as a new single organisation. The NHS Long Term Plan focuses on delivering integrated care to patients at the local level and we can best support the NHS to deliver this as a single integrated organisation.

Our new operating model represents a strong shift to regional delivery supported by expert corporate teams. Local health systems are supported by our integrated regional teams who play a major leadership role in the geographies they manage.

We are jointly committed to creating and maintaining a fair and supportive working environment and culture, where contributions are fully recognised and valued by all and staff feel empowered to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities. As employers we are committed to promoting and protecting the physical and mental health and well-being of all our staff. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution, supports us to be an Employer of Choice and ultimately enables our employees to support the effective care of our patients.