Locum Neonatology Consultant

Job overview

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT) are looking to appoint a 1-year Locum Consultant Neonatologist cover maternity leave. This post will start in August 2024.The successful candidate will work with the existing consultants to deliver a level 2 neonatal service at University Hospital Lewisham. The post holder will have responsibility to deliver and manage a Level 2 NNU service.

This is a locum post, to cover maternity leave for a colleague. This post would be suitable for either a consultant neonatologist or a consultant paediatrician with interest in neonatology.

Main duties of the job

The neonatal units at LGT work closely with obstetric and maternity services cross site. Lewisham and Greenwich Trust have recently been given a ‘Good’ rating by CQC for maternity services and outstanding for maternity leadership at UHL.

The Neonatal Consultant team work on a 5-week rolling rota. This includes a service week for the Level 2 Neonatal Unit (NNU). As part of the NNU week, the consultant also directly supervises the teaching and training programme. Following an external review of neonatal and paediatric services at Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust, funding has been agreed for a sixth consultant on the neonatal rota at Univiersity Hospital Lewisham. The plan is to move to a 6-week rolling rota during the next year.

The other 4 weeks are dedicated to outpatient clinics, SPA activity, specialty service, annual and study leave. The on-call commitment is 1 in 5 weekdays and 1 in 5 weekends. All on call activity will be at University Hospital Lewisham.

Please check the attached Job Description for the Job Plan type.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities:

• Together with the other neonatologists, to provide a service for children on the UHL site in neonatal paediatrics.  This includes all aspects of treatment and relevant management duties for the proper functioning of the department as per the job plan.
• Shared responsibility with the other Paediatricians for providing 24-hour, 7 day a week cover for the Local neonatal unit on a rota basis. Responsible also for covering colleague’s periods of annual leave and short-term sickness.
• To take responsibility for patients on the local neonatal unit on the relevant service weeks, liaise with nursing staff and the wider multidisciplinary team e.g. labour ward.
• To be aware of and deal with safeguarding issues as required and to manage patients with advice from the safeguarding team.
• Carry out outpatient duties with appropriate administration and patient follow up.
• Be aware of and assist in divisional objectives through clinical work e.g. Electronic discharges within 24 hours, DNA rates, infection control.

Medical Education & Teaching:

• Participate in medical student and junior doctor (all grades) teaching, clinical and seminar format especially within the clinical forum
• Participate in nurse teaching as appropriate.
• Undertake monitoring and appraisal of junior staff within everyday practice and take part as educational supervisor (with appropriate training).

Clinical Audit and Clinical Governance:

• Individual contribution to divisional governance programme will be expectedInvolvement in audit projects and supervision of junior staff in audit projects is possible and will be encouraged in this post

Continuing Professional Development:

• Participate in continuing professional development at local and national level.
• Implement audit and research findings as appropriate in clinical practice.
• Prepare and participate in an annual appraisal in accordance with Trust policy
• Undertake additional professional responsibilities at local, regional or national levels as agreed with the Clinical or Divisional Director

Policy, Planning and Management:

• Support the Trust to deliver quality patient care according to Trust Principles
• Contribute to the development of clinical and organisational protocols and guidelines.
• Assist in the development of the Annual Service Plan for the Directorate and Division and participate in the strategic planning of the service.
• Comply with all Trust policies.
• Consultants are accountable to the Clinical Director for the further development of management issues. Specific training issues will be developed in conjunction with the clinical tutor.