We're looking for a motivated Band 6 Occupational Therapist - or a Band 5 ready to step up - to join our Acute Orthopaedic and Surgical Therapy Team at Bedford Hospital. You'll work closely with patients recovering from musculoskeletal injuries, orthopaedic trauma, and a wide range of surgical procedures, helping them regain independence and return to daily life.
You'll be part of a supportive, well‑established team that includes Band 7 Team Leads, rotational Band 5s, and highly skilled therapy technicians. Your caseload will be varied and engaging, from fractured neck of femurs and polytraumas to general, urology, ENT, and colorectal surgery. You'll also have opportunities to support outlier areas such as Gynaecology, Critical Care, Paediatrics (equipment provision), and the Surgical Assessment Unit.
This role is ideal for someone seeking a rewarding blend of clinical challenge, teamwork, and professional growth.
The Occupational Therapy Team specialise in complex assessment and intervention planning throughout the hospital. As an OT within the Acute Ortho/surgical Team, you will work as part of the larger MDT to ensure high quality care and treatment. Specialising in functional assessment and treatment to assist in ascertaining discharge plans, you will have the specialist skills to make high risk decisions. You will also be supporting band 5's to develop these skills.
You will need to be able to work in an autonomous way to facilitate good communication and effectively link with multiple on site and external teams. You will have the chance to work with our exciting Prevention of Deconditioning team and will also have the opportunity to be involved in service development and audit alongside our Practice Development OT.
High quality clinical supervision is provided for all our staff. You will be supported with your professional development and training by the Team Managers and the Practice Development Lead.
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available
Our values
We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.
Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.
The Job Description and Person Specification are attached to this job, please review for the full details and responsibilities
• To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of your work including management of patient caseloads.
• Formulate and develop individual treatment programmes underpinned by sound knowledge of evidence-based practice and using a range of treatment options.
• Use clinical reasoning skills and evaluate outcomes of treatments to continually reassess and develop treatment programmes.
• Establish an accurate prognosis and recommend best course of treatments in addition to developing comprehensive treatment and discharge plans.
• Use a large range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate with patients to progress and gain participation with rehabilitation treatment programmes. This will include patients who have difficulties in understanding and communicating.
To be responsible for management of clinical risk of your own caseload.
This advert closes on Wednesday 25 Feb 2026