Job overview
Applications are invited for the post of an Upper Limb Specialty Doctor for Trauma and Orthopaedics (T&O) department. This is an opportunity to join a busy, dynamic multidisciplinary team to help us improve the trauma and orthopaedics service that we provide to our population. This is initially a one-year fixed term post, but extendable thereafter for the right candidate. The successful candidate will be managing patient care in outpatient clinics, fracture clinics, virtual fracture clinics, triaging and assisting in elective and trauma theatres. There will also be opportunities to teach and support more junior staff in the department. The Specialty Doctor is a key role within T&O as they are responsible for fast tracking patients through their diagnosis, initiating investigations, and providing management & treatment plans for patients presenting with orthopaedic issues.
Main duties of the job
The main duties of the applicant include managing and treating T&O patients under consultant supervision, leading and supporting other junior doctors. They will be expected to work as a part of a team and provide support to all staff within the team. The Orthopaedic Department has centralised all Trauma Services at Queens Hospital in Romford, with Inpatient Elective activity being undertaken at King Georges Hospital in Goodmayes, with hospital-provided transportation available between sites. We are currently working with our external partners to ensure a streamlined pathway from referral to treatment thus ensuring achievement of the 18-week RTT target. We have a fully-fledged ‘virtual fracture clinic’ service since December 2019 to enable a more robust triage service and reducing the amount of unnecessary face-to-face appointments in fracture clinics, that patients are asked to attend following their A&E/UCC attendance. This is coupled with a more intuitive system of referring patients directly to the correct sub-specialty clinic for further treatment under the most relevant consultant.
Working for our organisation
We’re an organisation that is getting better and better. We were the most improved Trust in England for A&E performance in 2023/24; we’re no longer in special measures; and Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive, has been named the top CEO by the Health Service Journal. Our improvements are driven by a determination to deliver care we’re proud of and that our patients are happy with.
Many of our 8,000 staff – who come from 146 different countries - live in the three diverse London boroughs we serve and the majority are from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. More than 400 of them are on apprenticeship programmes and we’re proud to be a London Living Wage employer.
We operate from two main sites - King George Hospital (KGH) in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford. We have two of the busiest emergency departments in London – more than 300,000 people visited our A&Es in 2023.
Patients across northeast London are benefitting from two new state of the art theatres at KGH and our Community Diagnostic Centres at Barking Community Hospital and St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub will significantly increase the number of scans that can be carried out.
We’re looking forward to introducing an electronic patient record next year. This will mean the records of any patient visiting one of the seven hospitals run by BHRUT and Barts Health will be accessible to the clinical teams. It’ll make things easier for staff and will be better for patients
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The post holder will also triage T&O patients, and this improves the decision-making in clinic or for admission/further referral management. The postholder will participate in clinical governance programme including appraisal, audit and research projects leading to publications. They will have opportunity to get involved in quality improvement projects. The successful candidate will also participate in the on-call as part of the rotation.
Person specification
Education/ Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. MBBS/MRCS/FRCS or equivalent medical qualification and GMC registered
2. Excellent communication skills both verbal and written and Excellent decision making at consultant level
3. Experience at middle grade level or substantial experience with independent elective lower limb clinics and theatres experience
Desirable criteria
4. Experience in Trauma services and virtual fracture clinics
5. Experience of managing emergency surgical patients
6. Equivalent experience in Trauma and Orthopaedics
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Application numbers
This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.