Clinical Fellow – MetagenomicsNHS
Job summary
NHS Respiratory Metagenomics Programme
The NHS Respiratory Metagenomics Programme has been commissioned by NHS England and the government's Department of Science, Innovation and Technology to revolutionise the diagnosis and surveillance of infectious disease in the UK through cutting edge genomic technology. The programme is a partnership between the NHS, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) to embed pathogen agnostic metagenomic testing in NHS microbiology labs and ICUs by 2029, providing same day clinical detection and real-time data signals to UKHSA's proof of concept national surveillance platform. Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust is leading this national programme on behalf of the NHS, implementing the initial use case in respiratory infection and leading on translational research efforts with the potential to scale across multiple clinical settings. The programme will serve as a test bed for the accelerated adoption of innovation in healthcare, a proof of concept in the use of a clinical diagnostic backbone in an 'always on', real-time UK pathogen surveillance system, as well as a driver of economic growth in the UK life sciences sector and contributor to the development of international solutions to issues of global biosecurity.
Main duties of the job
Role Outline
This is a fixed term Clinical Fellow post to join a multi-disciplinary team leading the national NHS Clinical Metagenomics Programme establishing a world first national clinical metagenomics and surveillance service in microbiology departments and ICUs across the UK. This is a transformational post, focusing on service development and multi-site evaluation of a rapid pan-microbial respiratory metagenomic diagnostic in routine care across multiple hospitals and laboratories. While this post is predominantly focused on improvement, there will be opportunities to support clinical service delivery across multiple sites and patient populations at GSTT, KCH and GOSH.
The post-holder will be expected to support the metagenomics service to provide clinical and technical laboratory liaison and therefore have significant experience in bacteriology, virology and molecular techniques. The post-holder will also get exposure to a wide range of laboratory techniques and therefore offers a range of experience to trainees in infection specialties to the standard required for core and higher specialty infection training, relevant to Part 1 and 2 FRCPath examinations. There will also be the opportunity to participate in the wider Infection related activities including research projects, academic meetings, clinical meetings and microbiology laboratory learning opportunities.
Job description
A full Job Description and Person Specification can be found in the attached documentation.
Training status and Out of Programme Experience
This is a fixed-term Clinical Fellow post and is not a recognised specialty training post. The role may be suitable for doctors wishing to undertake a period of Out of Programme for Clinical Experience (OOPE).
Doctors currently holding a National Training Number must obtain prospective approval for OOPE from their Training Programme Director and the relevant postgraduate deanery/NHS England local office before commencing the post. Appointment to this role does not automatically confer OOPE approval.
Time spent in this post will not normally count towards the award of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), and the doctors anticipated CCT date may therefore be adjusted.
About us
Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK's best-known hospitals - Guy's, St Thomas', Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield - as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high-quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.
We are among the UK's busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.
We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and - as part of King's Health Partners - we are one of England's eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have one of the National Institute for Health Research's biomedical research centres, established with King's College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities.
We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs.