Consultant Anaesthetist with an Interest in Obstetric AnaesthesiaNHS

Job summary

We are searching for an exceptional Consultant Anaesthetist with a passion for Obstetric Anaesthesia to join a team that is growing, innovating, and determined to deliver the safest, highest-quality care for women and families. This is a chance to lead, to challenge, and to help build a service that will sit at the heart of our brand-new Women's and Children's Centre opening in 2028.

Our Trust is on the brink of a once-in-a-generation change. Backed by £312 million of investment, the Hospital Transformation Programme will create:

• A single acute site at The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, home to a new 30-bed Critical Care Unit, a modern Emergency Department, and a state-of-the-art Women's and Children's Hospital
• A dedicated planned care site at The Princess Royal Hospital, supporting high-quality elective surgery and improved patient flow

This is your opportunity to join us at the perfect moment -- early enough to influence the design and delivery of future services, but close enough to opening that you'll see your impact become reality.

You will work across obstetric and general anaesthesia, with on-calls currently based at the Princess Royal Hospital. As we prepare for the HTP, future on-call arrangements may evolve to support cross-site working. There are also opportunities to develop interests in pre-operative assessment, paediatric anaesthesia, and day-case anaesthesia within our new elective hub, opened in June 2024.

Main duties of the job

Our maternity unit supports around 4,000 births each year, offering a busy but highly rewarding clinical environment with a caesarean section rate of approximately 42% and epidural rate of approximately 26.7%. You will join a dynamic, friendly, and forward-thinking team of Consultants and SAS doctors who are committed to delivering safe, high-quality care for women and families.

Daytime obstetric anaesthesia is consultant-led, with SAS colleagues providing out-of-hours cover. Together, our team delivers all elective and emergency obstetric anaesthesia and runs a well-established weekly high-risk antenatal clinic.

We work exceptionally closely with our obstetric, midwifery, and theatre colleagues, and our strong multidisciplinary culture is one of our greatest strengths. This is reflected in:

• Active anaesthetic involvement in PROMPT, live drills, and multidisciplinary simulation
• A monthly Labour Ward Forum
• Joint planning for high-risk cases
• Weekly MDT risk meetings
• Daily MDT labour ward rounds

You will have protected obstetric governance time, in addition to monthly departmental governance meetings.

We are proud to train postgraduate doctors from the Stoke School of Anaesthesia, supporting them through their Initial Assessment of Obstetric Competence and offering intermediate and top-up modules. If you enjoy teaching, you will find plenty of opportunity to get involved.

Job description

A formal job plan will be agreed between the successful candidate and their Clinical Director and consultant colleagues, on behalf of the Medical Director within 3 months of starting in post. A full-time job plan is based on a 10 PA working week. The job plan will be reviewed annually and is a prospective agreement that sets out the consultant's duties, responsibilities, and objectives for the coming year. It covers all aspects of a consultants professional practice including clinical work, teaching, research, education and managerial responsibilities. It will provide a clear schedule of commitments, both internal and external and will include personal objectives, detailing links to wider service improvements and trust strategic priorities.

For a full-time contract, the job plan will be divided on average per week (pro-rata for a part time post) as:

• 7.5 Programmed Activities (PAs) of Direct Clinical Care - includes clinical activity, clinically related activity, and predictable (0.6 PA) and unpredictable (0.65 PA) emergency work.
• 2.5 Supporting Professional Activities (SPAs) - includes CPD, audit, teaching and research.

Covering CPD, teaching, research, audit, QI, leadership, simulation, guideline development, and more

We actively encourage consultants to develop specialist interests, and there is genuine scope to carve out a niche whether thats obstetrics, simulation, human factors, digital innovation, education, governance, or service redesign. You will be joining a department that values initiative, supports ambition, and celebrates expertise.

About us

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) is the main provider of acute hospital services for around half a million people in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales. Our main service locations are the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) in Shrewsbury which are located 20 minutes' drive apart. Together they provide 99% of our activity. Both hospitals provide a wide range of acute hospital services.

Our Poppy's Promise Commitment

We believe that compassionate care sits at the heart of everything we do. Every member of our team -- clinical or non-clinical -- plays a vital role in ensuring that patients, families, and colleagues are treated with dignity, empathy, and respect at all times.

We expect all staff to demonstrate compassion not only through their words, but through their actions: by listening attentively, communicating clearly and kindly, and recognising individual needs, feelings, and circumstances of those in our care.

Effective communication is central to safe and high-quality healthcare. We value colleagues who take the time to understand others, explain information in a meaningful way, and respond to concerns with patience and understanding.

By joining our team, you are committing to uphold these values -- ensuring that every patient feels heard, respected, and valued, and that compassion is embedded in every interaction, every day.