Locum Consultant in Acute MedicineNHS

Job summary

Applications are invited for a (10PA) consultant post based in the Acute Medicine Unit (AMU) at University Hospitals Plymouth. The post also offers 2 PAs of other specialist work on negotiation. We have a broad range of services within Derriford hospital and welcome the opportunity to allow our acute medical colleagues to include this within their job plans. Specialties supporting Acute Medicine where sub-specialty work may be developed include Gastroenterology, Respiratory, Cardiology, Neurology / Stroke, Hepatology, Diabetes & Endocrinology, Geriatric Medicine & Frailty, General Internal Medicine, and Infectious Diseases. (For applicants who do not meet the substantive post criteria, there may be a CESR portfolio pathway option which allows for a 12 month locum position until CESR requirements can be achieved).

The post holder will provide clinical leadership within the Acute Medical Department, and provide excellent holistic medical care within the team on the Acute Medical Unit (AMU), Medical Same Day Emergency Care (Medical SDEC), the Virtual Ward and the Emergency Department (when senior input is required). You will be part of a dedicated team of Acute Medicine Consultants and provide supervision, working collaboratively within our dynamic acute medicine team consisting of doctors-in-training, physicians associates and advanced clinical practitioners. We have close relationships with our registered nurses and allied health professional colleagues.

Main duties of the job

Our AMU is now comprised of 73 beds (which includes a new medical receiving unit) , seeing approximately 20,000 patients per year, and has a well-supported Medical Same Day Emergency Care Unit (Medical SDEC). A new medical model is increasing patients access to medical SDEC, supported by medical specialties with virtual wards and Hot Clinics. The in-patients are reviewed between 0800 and 1200 hours by three consultants (including 2 Acute Physicians and 1 General physician) and we aim to see all the new admissions from overnight. The Take consultant provides AMU cover until 8pm.

Job description

There are currently 13 Acute Medicine Consultants with a major commitment to acute medicine and further 4 Physicians with part-time commitment to acute medicine. The Medical Take on-call rota comprises General Medicine consultants from various medical specialties. Successful applicants for these posts will commit to the full take rota and acute medicine weekend working. The post holder will also be contributing to medical take on call (weekends only) but will not be required to work more than 1:7 weekends.

Acute physicians roles: The Acute Physician of the day (APOD) Supervises the medical take from 0800-1730 and is clinician in charge of the AMU shop floor during this period. The APOD will see approximately 1/3 of the AMU patients between 0800 and 1300 hours. The afternoon session is given to further review of sick patients identified on the post take ward round and timely review of new admissions. The APOD runs the 0800 and 1700 twice daily safety briefs and the daily 1100 board round.

Take assist Reviews new medical admissions between 0800-1300 hours. This includes patients for post take ward round and those who have been on the unit for more than 24 hours.

Medical SDEC consultant: The Medical SDEC is covered from 0800-2000 from Mondays to Fridays and from 0800-1730 from Saturday to Sunday.

Weekend duties: Acute Medicine Consultants will be expected to work no more than one in seven weekends, in line with other medical specialties. This may comprise of a long take day (0800-2000hrs) and a shorter day on SDEC (0900-1700) or MRU depending upon the rota,

About us

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is the largest hospital in the Southwest peninsula and a major trauma centre, providing comprehensive secondary and tertiary healthcare.

Our geography gives us a secondary care catchment population of 450,000 with a wider peninsula population of almost 2,000,000 people who can access our specialist services. The population is characterised by its diversity - the rural and the urban, the wealthy and pockets of deprivation, and wide variance in health and life expectancy. Population ageing is a recognised national trend, but is exacerbated locally by the drift of younger people out of the area and older people in. The proportion of our population aged 85 or over is growing ahead of the national average by approximately 10 years and we have developed a Population Health Strategy in response to this demographic shift.