Chief Respiratory Physiologist
The closing date is 30 November 2025
Core responsibilities
* To be responsible for the provision and delivery of a comprehensive lung function, cardiopulmonary exercise and the obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) service for patients at the James Paget Hospital.
* To be responsible for the management and teaching of staff.
* To be responsible for the technical respiratory budget.
* To provide specialist advice on the technical aspect of respiratory procedures.
* Actively contribute to the IQIPS processes involved with service accreditation.
Main duties of the job
1. To be responsible for the diagnostic aspect of the Obstructive Sleep Apnoea service.
2. To share responsibility for the therapeutic aspect of the OSA Service with Consultant Physicians, nurse specialists, service assistants and other colleagues.
3. Delegated budget holder for the equipment consumables for the OSA Service and technical respiratory service.
4. To provide efficient and effective management of the technical respiratory staff and service.
5. To represent the OSA service to other departmental and interdepartmental projects and groups as required.
6. To obtain accurate and clinically valuable measures at rest and exercise of the lung function patients.
7. To be responsible for the calibration of equipment and continual quality control of measurements.
8. To record workload data and audit the performance of the service and the increasing demands upon it.
9. To assess and implement new tests as appropriate.
10. To be actively involved with the performance and daily running of the newly established cardiopulmonary exercise service.
11. To evaluate new equipment and methods including trying new patterns of work, as appropriate, to meet the increasing demands on the service.
About us
We want to attract the best and brightest people to work with us and that means we will look after you from the moment you apply for a role at the Trust and throughout your career with us. Our staff are central to everything we do, and we believe that investing in you is crucial if we want to enable you to reach your full potential.
Job responsibilities
Clinical
1. To lead, instruct and coach patients in the required techniques and the need for full co‑operation and maximum effort in performing lung function, by demonstrating the same physical effort and enthusiasm to obtain reproducible and meaningful results.
2. To be responsible for the investigation of sleep disordered breathing by domiciliary oximetry and part polysomnography sleep studies, inpatient sleep studies and capillary blood gas measurement.
3. To instigate continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in suitable patients, as directed by Consultant Physicians.
4. To instigate bi‑level auto (BIPAP) therapy in suitable patients as directed by Consultant Physicians.
5. To provide clinical support for patients established on CPAP therapy (e.g. assessing equipment and interface functionality, monitoring progress and efficacy).
6. To be actively involved within the Sleep MDT meetings.
7. To measure static lung volumes by body plethysmography and nitrogen washout methods.
8. To measure dynamic lung volumes by spirometry and flow‑volume loop.
9. To assess bronchodilator response with short‑acting and long‑acting drugs.
10. To undertake gas exchange studies such as measurement of transfer factor for carbon monoxide by the single breath method.
11. To be responsible for the investigation of neuromuscular defects by postural spirometry and maximal inspiratory and expiratory mouth pressures.
12. To measure exercise limitation by the 6‑minute walk field exercise test.
13. To measure exercise limitation by advanced cardiopulmonary exercise testing.
14. To assess bronchial challenge with inhaled mannitol or other agents as per agreed protocols.
15. To be responsible for the assessment of hypoxic challenge (Fitness to Fly test).
16. To undertake overnight pulse oximetry and LTOT assessments.
Education, Training and Development
1. Act as an effective role model at all times.
2. Develop and deliver a training programme for student clinical physiologists and assistant practitioners as required and to facilitate a good learning environment. Regularly assess the competency of student clinical physiologists, assistant practitioners and Respiratory Physiologists as required.
3. Provide training for other health care professionals e.g. training of nursing staff in lung function techniques and interpretation of results, especially spirometry and training / teaching of medical students.
4. To be pro‑active in awareness of current issues/research, updating colleagues as appropriate.
5. Identify and attend relevant courses as part of your personal development plan and that of others.
6. Undertake further / on‑going training in Respiratory Investigations and reporting.
Staff Management
1. Lead and manage all staff within the technical respiratory department.
2. Review and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of both trained and untrained staff.
3. Regularly update job profiles and job descriptions for all grades of staff.
4. Manage sickness / absenteeism and take appropriate action.
5. Lead initiatives to recruit and retain staff.
6. Monitor staff performance and take appropriate action as necessary.
7. Be the first point of contact in any disciplinary / grievance issue.
8. Undertake staff personal development plans and regularly review and keep up to date.
Resource Management
1. Manage the pay and non‑pay budgets for department.
2. Devise ways to make best use of all resources and control expenditure.
3. Devise ways of securing extra funding from external sources.
4. Effectively oversee rotas to ensure optimum flexibility for staffing the department.
5. Identify ways to introduce more flexible working arrangements.
6. Manage the levels of all stock and equipment.
7. Develop and maintain a working knowledge of IPM.
Person Specification
Education and qualifications
* BSc in Clinical Physiology/Healthcare Science (Respiratory) or equivalent
* ARTP part 1 and 2 professional examinations or equivalent
* Higher degree, post graduate and further professional education
Knowledge and experience
* 3 or more years experience as a senior respiratory physiologist within a sleep and lung function department
* Knowledge and experience in performing simple and advanced exercise tests, including the cardiopulmonary exercise test
* Knowledge and experience in performing and interpreting advanced pulmonary function testing
* Knowledge and experience in performing and interpreting level 1 and 2 overnight sleep studies
* Experienced in CPAP initiated, titration and review of therapy compliance
* Knowledge and expereince in performing level 3 and 4 polysomongraphy studies
* Experience of running a domiciliary NIV service
Skills and knowledge
* Basic computer input skills
* Previous experiencing in working with Philips Respironics and ResMed patient cloud databases
* Previous experience working with Jaeger (formerly Vyaire) pulmonary function systems
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.
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Oulton Suite and Northgate Community Diagnostic Centres
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