Locum Consultant Cellular Pathologist / Gynaecological Histopathology

Job overview

This is a Locum consultant post x 2 covering maternity leave. The Department of Cellular Pathology is seeking two locum full-time (10 PA) consultants to join a dynamic and supportive team of colleagues.  The post holder must have a demonstrable major interest in genealogical pathology with a current diagnostic gynaecological pathology practice. The department is involved in many exciting initiatives and we are looking for an individual with appropriate skills to complement the teams and keep the service at the forefront of clinical and academic excellence. The laboratory has full UKAS/ISO accreditation status.

As an organisation, we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients.  This includes asking certain groups of staff to work more flexibly so that we can offer services to patients in the evenings and at weekends.  We regard this flexibility as essential if we are to continue to provide first class patient care in the future.  As a result, any offer of employment to a consultant post will be subject to you agreeing to work a new more flexible pattern of working in the future if required and in accordance with the provisions of the new Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust consultant contract.

Main place of employment:

This post will be based at the St Thomas’ site.  However, it is a requirement of your employment that you be prepared to work at any additional or different location owned or served by the trust.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be accountable to the Clinical Lead in Cellular Pathology.

Specialist Interest

The Department operates a system of specialist reporting, each consultant having one or more special interests, which facilitates dealing with difficult cases and enhances patient care in accordance with Calman-Hine recommendations.

Specialist Interest

The Department operates a system of specialist reporting, each consultant having one or more special interests, which facilitates dealing with difficult cases and enhances patient care in accordance with Calman-Hine recommendations.

The specialist diagnostic pathology to be delivered by this locum post is gynaecological histopathology. However, a second specialist interest would be considered as a minor component of a post, depending on the requirements of the department at the time.

The successful candidate will be expected to participate in continuing professional development (CPD) and this form part of the supporting programmed activities in the agreed job plan.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Gynaecologic pathology:

GSTT is a major tertiary referral centre for Gynaecologic oncology patients within South East London. The current gynaecological histopathology team consists of 6 consultants - Dr Giuseppe Culora, Dr Padma Menon, Dr Alexander Polson, Dr Olga Wise, Dr Mina Mansy, Dr Holly White & Dr Ahmed Ali. The current consultants also have other speciality interests.

The department deals with a mixture of biopsies and resections, including complex cancer specimens, as well as referrals for expert opinion or multidisciplinary discussion.

There is a large regional weekly gynaecologic oncology MDM, with typically around 45 patients discussed each week and attended by clinicians from referring hospitals in South East London. The pathology consultants support a team of 4 specialist surgical gynaecological oncologists whose range is continuously expanding, having recently started to perform ultra-radical surgery for ovarian cancer whilst continuing to offer exenteration surgery, fertility sparing surgery for cervical cancer and state of the art brachytherapy treatment for cervical cancer. Services offered to patients with vulval disease are also evolving with the establishment of a joint clinic between a gynaecological oncology surgeon and dermatologist.

The annual average total histopathology workload for the main department is circa 40,000 specimens, excluding skin and head & neck histopathology which are delivered from separate ultraspecialist laboratories within the Trust.

The department is actively involved in recruiting patients to national and international studies following the appointment of a dedicated research nurse, with pathological support provided by the gynaecological pathology team.

GSTT also currently hosts a large cervical cytology screening service and has a large colposcopy unit.

The team are actively involved in teaching undergraduate students and pathology trainees. Up to 2 histopathology trainees are allocated to the gynaecological pathology team on a monthly basis and are involved in all aspects of specimen dissection, histological interpretation and report writing.

Provide High Quality Care to Patients

·         To provide expert histopathology services with the object of ensuring a high standard of patient care

·         To participate in clinical and other service activities with the object of ensuring a high standard of patient care

• The post holder must be medically qualified and maintain GMC full and specialist registration and hold a current licence to practice
• To develop and maintain the competencies required to carry out the duties required of the post.
• To ensure prompt attendance at agreed direct clinical care Programmed Activities.

Research, Teaching and Training

• Where possible to collaborate with academic and clinical colleagues to enhance the Trust’s translational research portfolio, at all times meeting the full requirements of Research Governance.
• To provide high quality teaching to medical undergraduates and members of other health care professions as required by the Clinical Director.
• To act as educational supervisor and appraiser as delegated by the Clinical Director to ensure external accreditation of training post.

Performance Management

To work with medical, nursing and managerial colleagues to ensure high performance in the following areas:

• Clinical efficiency e.g. LOS reductions, reducing cancelled operations and DNA rates.
• Quality of outcomes e.g. infection control targets, reducing re-admission rates.
• Financial management, e.g. identification, implementation and achievement of cost improvement programmes and participating in efforts to ensure services are provided cost effectively such as managing locum agency spend, monitoring and managing the drug budget to target, ensuring accuracy of clinical data for the team.
• Operational efficiency, e.g. day-case rates, waiting list activity and demand management.

Medical Staff Management

• To work with colleagues to ensure junior doctors’ hours are compliant in line with EWTD and New Deal.
• To ensure that adequate systems and procedures are in place to control and monitor leave for junior medical staff and to ensure that there is appropriate cover within the clinical areas, including on-call commitments
• To participate in the recruitment of junior medical staff as and when required.
• To participate in team objective setting as part of the annual job planning cycle.
• To be responsible for the annual appraisal of all doctors in training, Trust doctors, Clinical Fellows and non-consultant grades as delegated by the Clinical Director/General Manager.

Governance

• To review clinical outcomes in designated area using external benchmarking data where appropriate, to identify and advise variances to the Clinical Director.
• To participate in clinical audit, incident reporting and analysis and to ensure resulting actions are implemented.
• To work closely with the Directorate, Patient and Public Involvement panels in relation to clinical and services developments as delegated by the Clinical Director.
• To participate in ensuring NICE requirements are reviewed and implemented and monitored in the speciality areas.
• To ensure clinical guidelines and protocols are adhered to by junior medical staff and updated on a regular basis.
• To keep fully informed about best practice in the speciality areas and ensure implications for practice changes are discussed with the Clinical Director.
• To role model good practice for infection control to all members of the multidisciplinary team.

Strategy and Business Planning

• To participate in the business planning and objective setting process for the directorate and Trust where appropriate.
• To represent the Trust at appropriate clinical networks/other external clinical meetings, as delegated by the Clinical Director.

Leadership and Team Working

• To demonstrate excellent leadership skills with regard to individual performance, clinical teams, the Trust and when participating in national or local initiatives.
• To work collaboratively with all members of the multi-disciplinary team and Kings Health Partners as required.
• To chair regular meetings for the specialties.
• To resolve conflict and difficult situations through negotiation and discussion, involving appropriate parties.
• Adhere to Trust/departmental guidelines on leave, including reporting absence.