Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Consultant in Palliative Medicine
The closing date is 17 April 2026
This is a new substantive Consultant post to develop and lead COMPASS (Community Outreach Model for Palliative Assessment, Support and Step up & down). This is a new initiative seeking to guide patients and professionals to the right care in the right place at the right time. The role incorporates both the assessment of patients presenting with palliative care needs in acute receiving areas at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, alongside oversight of patients with palliative care needs being cared for by the Hospital at Home service. The aim is to provide acute holistic management and interventions at home preventing hospital or hospice admission, if preferred.
Main duties of the job
The post-holder will provide a Palliative Medicine advisory service to the clinical teams within Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust with a particular focus on the acute receiving areas (Emergency Departments, Acute Medical Units). They will also provide clinical support for patients on the Hospital at Home caseload who have Palliative Care needs.
This postholder will support the IC SW-wide strategy for Palliative & End of Life Care, alongside community palliative care providers. There are excellent links with the community palliative care services within the county, including the 3 hospices: St Richards Hospice in Worcester, Primrose Hospice in Bromsgrove & KEMP Hospice in Kidderminster. This post works in partnership with all statutory and voluntary providers and is essential to the maintenance and further development of an integrated palliative care service for Worcestershire across primary and secondary care sectors.
The post-holder, in partnership with other existing Consultants in Palliative Medicine in Worcestershire, will be required to develop and coordinate services for people with palliative care needs by:
* Promoting good practice in the delivery of care
* Providing a clinical service with specialist advice and guidance to other clinicians in respect of palliative care
* Undertaking liaison, education, research and audit in palliative care
You can find further details within the JD (please note, this JD is pending RCP approval).
Interview date: Friday 15th May 2026.
About us
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.
The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.
Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.
Being open and honest
Ensuring people feel cared for
Showing respect to everyone
We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System.
We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.
DBS Checks and Costs
Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check (at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in SupportingInformation section for more details on DBS checks and costs.
Job responsibilities
This job description, together with the job plan, will be reviewed annually and agreed with the Clinical Director and Divisional Director, on behalf of the Chief Medical Officer, to ensure that it continually reflects the areas of work, clinical responsibility of the post and purchaser requirements.
* A suitably experienced post-holder will be expected to provide a clinical service in the relevant specialty to patients of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and to General Practitioners.
* The post-holder will be expected to provide a service to patients of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, General Practitioners and to attend multi-disciplinary meetings. The successful candidate will be expected to work within multi-disciplinary teams in providing high quality clinical care. It is anticipated work will be undertaken on three sites and closer to the patients home. The Trust is seeking to extend services to GP surgeries/health centres etc and job plans may be revised in due course.
* The post-holder will provide support to the A&E department and acute medicine to ensure timely appropriate care and patient flow through the hospital. The post-holder will provide consultation and advisory service to clinical colleagues in the Trust and Primary Care.
* The post-holder will attend cross county and cross site meetings.
* The post-holder will collaborate with colleagues to deliver a high quality, timely service and to work towards meeting the Trusts and departmental objectives.
* The post-holder will, if relevant, participate in the on call rota to ensure that both emergency and urgent services are provided out of normal hours, to be shared equally with Consultant colleagues in post.
* The Trust would expect a consultant whilst undertaking on-call duties to attend the hospital site to review patients when clinically necessary. The consultant on call must be prepared to attend willingly whenever requested to do so by a member of their medical and nursing team.
* The post-holder, whilst undertaking weekend on call duties, will attend the hospital to undertake patient reviews.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Full GMC Registration with a Licence to practise.
* Entry on the GMC Specialist Register in Palliative Medicine (or expected within 6 months of interview date) via
* CCT or CESR (CP)
* CESR or
* European Community Rights
* Success in Intercollegiate Specialty Examination or overseas equivalent
Experience
* Clinical training and experience equivalent to that required for gaining (UK) CCT in Palliative Medicine
* Ability to offer expert clinical opinion on range of problems both emergency and elective within specialty
* Ability to take full and independent responsibility for clinical care of patients
Personal Attributes
* Ability to work in a team
* Enquiring, critical approach to work
* Ability to communicate effectively with patients, relatives, GPs, nurses and other agencies
* Commitment to Continuing Medical Education
* Willingness to undertake additional professional responsibilities at local regional or national levels
Teaching Experience
* Ability to teach clinical skills to medical, nursing staff and other disciplines
* Experience of teaching clinical skills to undergraduates and postgraduates
* Ability to supervise postgraduate research
Other Requirements
* An understanding of the current NHS environment, particularly in relation to reforms, initiatives and issues
* Able to meet the travel requirements of the job and return to the hospital within 30 minutes when on call
Management and Administrative Experience
* Ability to organise and prioritise workload effectively
* Ability to advise on efficient and smooth running of specialist service
* Ability to organise and manage outpatient priorities, including Virtual Ward caseload
* Ability to manage and lead the specialty firm and multi-disciplinary team
* Experience of audit management and conducting clinical audit
* Ability to manage and lead specialist unit and working parties as appropriate
* Ability to use the evidence based and clinical audit to support decision making
Research Experience
* Ability to apply research outcomes to clinical problems
* An awareness of current specialty specific developments and initiative
* Publications in relevant peer-reviewed journals in the last 5 years
* Evidence of having undertaken original research
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
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