Kingston Hospital - First Acute Trust in London to be rated Outstanding by CQC for Overall Quality and Leadership
Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a district general hospital situated in a beautiful and remarkable part of the country – close to London yet surrounded by royal parks, historic buildings and the River Thames. We are located on a single site in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey and run several outpatient clinics in neighbouring areas including Raynes Park Health Centre and Teddington Memorial Hospital.
We employ just under 5000 staff who proudly and efficiently support over 350,000 people locally through a full range of diagnostic and treatment services and we have a national reputation for innovative developments in healthcare, particularly in 'patient-focused' care, day surgery and maternity services.
The South West London Collaborative Bank
Kingston Hospital is a part of the local South West London Collaborative and offer competitive bank rates to work across the three NHS trusts: St Georges, Kingston Hospital and Epsom & St Helier. Our Smart App booking system makes life easier for flexible working!
Health and Wellbeing & Staff Benefits
The Trust understands that benefits go beyond just financial rewards and invests heavily in the wellbeing of its staff. Alongside opportunities for career development, there is a dedicated team of Staff Pastoral Wellbeing Practitioners who work with the Clinical and Corporate divisions, to provide pastoral support to all staff. These Practitioners are part of the wider Health & Wellbeing provision which includes a specialist Staff Physiotherapist, Occupational Health and access to counselling and an Employee Assistance Programme. The team works together to enhance staff wellbeing and to promote a healthy work-life balance.
Recent awards:
- Our Health Heroes Awards 2018 – Staff Retention and Wellbeing Employer of the Year
- HPMA Vivup Award for Well Being 2019
- NHSE National Healthcare Support Worker Award for Innovation and Excellence in Pastoral Support – 2023
- NHSE London Healthcare Support Worker Award for Sustainable Retention Initiative – 2023
Trust Values
Kingston Hospital NHS Trust has five key values and we want to employ and work with people who share these values and demonstrate behaviours that support them. They are:
- Caring – Design and deliver care around each individual patient’s needs and wants.
- Safe – Make the safety of patients and staff our prime concern as safety comes first
- Responsible – All staff take responsibility for the hospital, its services and reputation
- Value Each Other – Value each other's contribution
- Inspiring - We always strive to empower each other to develop and deliver improvements to benefit our patients
Job overview
Due to the expansion and increased demand of Cardiology diagnostics at Kingston Hospital we are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated Cardiographer with ambition to further their knowledge and experience.
We are looking for a candidate who has had previous experience of working with patients in a healthcare environment with previous ECG recording experience who also has knowledge of ambulatory monitors.
At Kingston Hospital we offer a wide range of services across the cardiac spectrum to our local community. Our philosophy is to deliver an excellent standard of patient focused care in line with NICE guidelines, National Service Frameworks and evidence based practice.
The Cardiac Physiology Service at Kingston Hospital is an excellent and well established service providing a full range of invasive and non-invasive cardiac investigations and therapies. We have expanded our current level of service to include complex implantable device follow –up (ICD and biventricular devices) alongside the developing Heart Failure and arrhythmia services.
To be successful in this post you will be capable of providing an excellent level of professionalism, be a team player and possess good communication and organisational skills.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will perform a range of routine cardiology diagnostic tests on both adult and paediatric patients to a competent and professional standard.
To adhere to departmental policies and procedures, ensuring a quality service is maintained to patients, general practitioners and clinicians.
Working for our organisation
Trust Culture and Values
The Trust has defined its culture as one that is patient centred and which puts safety first and where all staff members take responsibility, are valued and value each other.
To support this, our five values are that we are all:
Caring – we design and deliver care around each individual patient’s needs and wants.
Safe – we make the safety of patients and staff our prime concern (safety comes first).
Responsible – all staff take responsibility for the hospital, its services and reputation.
Inspiring – we always strive to empower each other to develop and deliver improvements to benefit our patients.
And that we:
Value each other – we all value each other’s contribution.
Our training, policies, procedures, and practices are all intended to support behaviours in line with our values and all staff are expected to uphold these by 'Living Our Values Everyday'.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical
1. To perform 12 lead ECGs on adults, paediatric and emergency patients as a solo operator.
2. Fitting and educating patients to use ambulatory holter and blood pressure monitors and 7 day event recorders.
3. To accurately download completed recordings onto the correct clinical database system.
4. Assisting patients to remove ambulatory monitors when required.
5. To assist in non-medically supervised exercise tolerance testing.
6. Be aware of responsibilities regarding equipment safety and report any incidents immediately.
7. Provide explanations of tests and procedures to junior and other health care professionals.
8. Adhere to all department policies and procedures.
9. To perform diagnostic satellite clinics at other centres if the need arises- eg: Surbiton Health Centre.
Communications
10. Participate in preparing the patient for a range of non-invasive cardiac investigations.
11. Communicating with cardiologists and their teams during relevant procedures advising of patient’s condition and notifying them of any change from baseline.
12. Understanding the boundaries of the role, knowing when to seek assistance or advice from someone with more experience and competence.
Administrative
13. To accurately complete all administration tasks related to Cardiology procedures.
14. Assist cardiology procedure bookings when required.
15. Monitor stock levels, report minimum levels as appropriate.
Team Role / Staff Management
16. Take responsibility for the overseeing of minimum standards within the department, ensuring that these are maintained and any issues are reported to the Senior Chief.
17. Manage own time to ensure balance between clinical and administrative activities.
Technical
18. Assist senior staff in ensuring the effective operation of the department on a day to day basis.
19. Ensure diagnostic equipment used on patients is used safely and properly.
20. Report and damage or misuse of equipment immediately to senior staff.
Governance
21. To at all times respect patient confidentiality and comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act.
22. To comply with all Trust policies and procedures, with particular regard to: risk Management, Health and Safety, Information Governance, Freedom of Information and Equal Opportunities.
Education and Training/Self-Development
23. Identify own training and development needs and undertake appropriate training/education as required.
24. Participate in an annual individual performance review process where objectives will be agreed, performance monitored and personal development needs discussed.
25. To attend all statutory and mandatory training as and when required to do so.
26. Act responsibly in respect of colleague’s health, safety and welfare following safe work practices and complying with the Trust’s Health and Safety Policies.
Adhere to all Trust Policies as applicable
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
27. •Educated to GCSE level or equivalent (to include English, Maths and Science)
Desirable criteria
28. •ASCST I & II or equivalent
Experience
Essential criteria
29. •Used to working with patients in a health care environment
Desirable criteria
30. •Previous ECG recording experience
Your application : Please ensure that you have read the job description and person specification and that your supporting statement reflects these, as your application will be assessed and scored against these criteria.
References : You will be required to provide 3 years of employment/educational history. We do not accept references from personal email addresses such as Hotmail, Gmail etc. therefore please ensure you are providing professional working email addresses within your application form. If you are unable to provide professional email addresses and are invited to an interview, please ensure you advise the interviewers of this - otherwise, this may delay your pre-employment checks.
Closing date : In order to streamline recruitment within our Trust, we reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications.
Shortlisting : You will only be contacted via e-mail/SMS by the SWL Recruitment Hub if you are successfully shortlisted for this post. Please ensure that you check your Trac registered e-mail regularly.
DBS : We are committed to safeguarding children and adults who are at risk of abuse. As such, if this post will have access to children or vulnerable adults, you will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. However, all employees have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
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.