Job overview
Clinical Lead for Acute Medicine – Royal London Hospital (Internal Vacancy)
Applications are invited from substantive consultants within Acute Medicine or General Internal Medicine for the role of Clinical Lead for Acute Medicine at the Royal London Hospital. This is a 1 PA leadership role with a responsibility allowance, appointed for a three year fixed term, providing an opportunity to take on senior clinical leadership within a large and well established Acute Medicine service. The post holder will work closely with the Clinical Director, General Manager and Senior Nurse to support the delivery of safe, effective and compassionate acute care across the Acute Assessment Unit (AAU), Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) and the emergency interface.
The Clinical Lead will act as the professional lead for medical staff within Acute Medicine, providing day to day clinical leadership, first sign off for consultant job planning, and oversight of key departmental leadership portfolios including governance, rota coordination, quality improvement and undergraduate education. The role includes chairing a regular consultant meeting, supporting clinical governance and service improvement activity, and fostering a positive, inclusive and high performing departmental culture.
Main duties of the job
The role sits within the Directorate of Acute Medicine & Older People Services and works closely with the Clinical Director, Senior Nurse and General Manager. It carries defined leadership, governance, workforce and service development responsibilities, alongside an agreed clinical commitment within the Acute Medicine rota.
In this role, the Clinical Lead:
-Provides day-to-day clinical leadership for Acute Medicine.
-Acts as the first-point senior medical leader for operational and clinical issues within the service.
-Supports strategic service delivery while maintaining an appropriate hands-on clinical presence.
-Oversees and coordinates agreed departmental leadership portfolios (for example workforce, rota management, governance, education, and pathway development), ensuring these are appropriately aligned with service priorities and delivered through designated role holders.
Working for our organisation
Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.
The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.
Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.
We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.
Barts Health supports The Pregnancy Loss Pledge and commits to supporting their staff through the distress of miscarriage.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification for main responsibilities and other details
Person specification
Experience and professional credibility
Essential criteria
1. Substantive consultant in Acute Medicine or General Internal Medicine with significant Acute Medicine commitment
2. Evidence of engagement in leadership, management or service development activity within Acute Medicine.
3. Understanding of clinical governance and patient safety within an acute medical service, with experience of contributing to improvement activity such as audit, quality improvement work, learning from incidents, complaints or mortality review.
4. Experience supervising, mentoring or supporting consultant and trainee colleagues
Desirable criteria
5. Previously holding a formal departmental or Trust leadership or portfolio role
Skills, Behaviours and values
Essential criteria
6. Demonstrable clinical leadership skills with the ability to influence peers
7. Strong communication skills, including chairing meetings and handling difficult conversations
8. Ability to manage competing operational priorities within a pressured acute environment