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Care of the Elderly Consultant
The closing date is 15 September 2025
The post will be flexibly time-tabled to meet the demands of the service and the timing of sessions may change as the service develops.
A typical week (Whole Time Equivalent) would consist of 10 Programmed Activities (PA's), including a minimum allocation of 1.5 SPA's for Supporting Professional Activities.
Clinical commitments would typically include responsibility for patients in one of our inpatient areas and beyond that we are keen for our consultants to develop services within their interests and the services that we run.
On call commitments are out of hours only and will be working onto our Acute Frailty Admissions ward at NSECH with remote support for our other wards across the trust.
Additional SPA's will be available dependent upon service need. There are additional PA's available for Education and Clinical supervision with 0.25 for first trainee and 0.125 for each subsequent trainee thereafter.
The post includes a formal role in medical undergraduate education and the postholder will be accountable to the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education (Newcastle University) for their educational role.
Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the closing date once the required number of suitable applications have been received.
Main duties of the job
Manage personal workload in such a way to ensure where possible service contract levels are achieved. Participate in the provision of cover on a shared basis with colleagues for periods of annual, sickness and study leave, except for prolonged absence where locum cover may be necessary.
Provide continuing clinical responsibility for patients under his/her care and assume responsibility for and facilitate contact from members of staff with delegated duties for personally accountable patient care.
Maintain an awareness and commitment to organisational priorities and ensure these are communicated effectively to colleagues and staff. Engage constructive debates about organisational issues through a willingness to interact positively with managers - showing mutual respect to ensure a similar level of respect in turn.
Effectively balance loyalty to the service and to the organisation through corporate behaviours and have an ability to anticipate change in current political climates showing an awareness of where the team sits in the bigger picture.
Understand the wider health economy and the implications for the Trust whilst working within organisational constraints with willingness to compromise and share resources.
About us
We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country. Leading in innovation and quality - opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn't, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare, this is the Northumbria Way! Please read 'applicant guidance notes' before submitting your application.
Job responsibilities
Outpatient care across all our hospitals with consultant-led beds at The Northumbria, Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Wansbeck General Hospitals and our Community Hospitals. We are committed to developing patient pathways beyond the traditional secondary care inpatient/outpatient model to better meet the needs of frail patients in our communities. This is aligned with the trust strategy to ensuing we provide the best care for our local people, in the right place, whatever the stage of a persons life.Our Acute service is based at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency care Hospital (NSECH), with 19 inpatient beds on our dedicated Admissions Ward for patients presenting to ED either directly or via their GP, and a peripatetic Frailty Assessment Service (FAS), which is consultant-led with Nurse Practitioner and therapist support, providing assessment of frail patients in ED itself, with the aim of initiating CGA early in the patient journey and facilitating early direct move to the most appropriate place for ongoing care; whether that be their home or one of our inpatient facilities.More recently we have opened an Elderly Assessment Unit (EAU) in Wansbeck Hospital with aims to provide same or next day assessment to frail patients in response to acute deterioration. This aligns with the trust strategy to develop credible alternatives to emergency department attendance and receives referrals directly from the ambulance service as well as GPs.
Our Frailty Virtual Ward is well established with plans to develop further. EAU, virtual frailty ward and the frailty assessment service in ED links with other community initiatives such as 2-hour urgent response. Our ambition is to open another EAU at North Tyneside Hospital in the future to help further build the vision of responsive frailty services close to patients. In Hexham we also run a 5/7 Elderly Assessment Service (EAC) which sees new (and some review) patients direct via GP referral for patients in the West of the region.
We have subacute wards at Hexham, Wansbeck, and North Tyneside General Hospitals, providing ongoing care for those felt to still need significant medical input, therapy and discharge planning following initial assessment at NSECH. In addition, our Community Hospital wards provide locally based inpatient rehabilitation and palliative care for those requiring a longer inpatient stay.
We have geriatrician input into intermediate care facilities in the North Tyneside areas at North Tyneside Intermediate Care unit and Princes Court with shared care with local GPs and Community re-ablement and rehabilitation teams.
Our inpatient liaison services provide orthogeriatric input to the Acute Trauma Ward at NSECH. We have an established general surgical liaison service for patients undergoing emergency laparotomy, with plans to further develop a proactive high risk outpatient service. We also hope to develop more generic surgical and medical liaison service to other wards in the Trust.
In terms of Outpatients, we run award winning Falls and PD services across the Trust, general outpatients and are Multidisciplinary Assessment Clinics (MDACs) to provide CGA to frail patients.
We are active within planned community services and have geriatricians working within community teams such as the proactive service in North Tyneside, Nursing Home MDT working in Northumberland, and run a number of Community MDTs
We host junior doctors of all grades across our service and are funded for training 4 Geriatrics Specialty Trainees. In addition to the opportunity to provide medical clinical and educational supervision and training; there is also the opportunity to be involved in training and supervising other staff groups within the department such as our Nurse practitioners and pharmacists.
We are keen for colleagues to develop variety in their job plans, to reflect personal interest and skills. Rotation through many of the areas above is encouraged with four-monthly rotations through the acute service at NSECH built into job plans. The further development of a clinical, educational or research special interest is encouraged.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* MRCP
* Fully registered on the UK General Medical Council's Specialist Register or Specialist Registrars may apply if within 6 months of CCT at date of interview.
* Full accreditation with the appropriate Royal College.
* Full GMC Registration.
* Educational Qualification
Experience
* Clinical training and experience in the relevant specialty, equivalent to that required to gain entry to the UK Certificate of Completed Training (CCT).
* Experience of and commitment to teaching undergraduate and postgraduate medical staff.
* Experience of and commitment to medical audit.
* Experience of audit management
* Teaching of non-medical health professionals.
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.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
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Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital
Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital
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