Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant

Job overview

The Emergency Department at Hereford County Hospital currently has approximately 70,000 attendances per year, of which 20% were paediatric. It is a Major Trauma Unit and incorporates a Children & Young Peoples’ Emergency Department, which is a self-contained area within the main ED footprint, adjacent to our resuscitation area.  We have good links with the Paediatric Consultants and the Children’s Unit, and the Children & Young Peoples’ ED is staffed with Paediatric Nurses.

The Emergency team currently consists of a dynamic team of 5 Consultants who are supported by regular input from the Acute Medicine Consultants.  The appointed candidate will join our team of ED Consultants to support the department in developing our Children & Young People’s ED.   Other leadership roles may be available following discussion with the team.

We currently have 16.59 WTE Specialty Doctors, 15.21 WTE Doctors working on the Junior tier, 4 ACPs and 8 ENPs.  We have recently been able to secure funding to expand not just the Consultant tier, but also the Specialty Doctor tier (to 24 WTE), and an increase to 8 ACPs.  This is in addition to staffing our Urgent Treatment Centre stream 0800-1800 5 days a week.

The post could be filled on a whole or part-time basis, and any candidate who is unable to work full time will still be considered for the post. If such a person is appointed, modification of the job plan will be discussed.

Interview Date - 28th  Feb  2025

Main duties of the job

The Consultants are based at the Hereford County Hospital site and provide Emergency Services for patients attending the Emergency Department. This service will include the reception, resuscitation and initial diagnosis of patients, together with the provision of treatment, appropriate referral and discharge of the patient - either back to the community, General Practitioner, Outpatients, or admission. As a Senior Leader within the Trust we are looking for motivated and forward thinking engaged Clinical staff to work within the teams to develop and encourage this way of working. A key role of the shop floor Consultant is to support the non-consultant grade clinicians and to support flow.

Together with the other EM Consultants, the post holder will be required to provide 24hr out of hours cover for the Emergency Department. This is currently provided by mutual arrangement on a flexible rota of 1:6, although increasing recruitment will allow this frequency to be reduced.

The post holder will be the departmental lead for Paediatric Emergency Medicine.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Principle Duties

●      Lead for Paediatric Emergency Medicine

●      In conjunction with the other Consultants, the provision of Emergency Services for patients attending the Emergency Department at Hereford County Hospital

●      To provide clinical leadership for development and delivery of a “Blended Model” of Emergency and Acute Physicians across teams sharing tasks, reducing duplication and improving the patient experience

Clinical

●      To share responsibility for the organisation and delivery of high quality care to the people of Herefordshire and to work with other healthcare providers in this delivery

●      To ensure timely and effective communication with all colleagues, including using the Trust’s electronic discharge summary system

●      The diagnosis, management and treatment of patients within the Emergency Department

●      To work in partnership with the wider medicine team

●      To contribute to the effective use of the inpatient beds including engaging in consultations regarding the admission and discharge processes of patients

●      Special clinical interests: The post holder may in conjunction with the agreement of the Clinical Lead develop any other services or aspects of a service.

The post-holder will also demonstrate a firm commitment to the principles of clinical governance, including:

• Developing and maintaining appropriate systems and practice to ensure effective clinical audit in Emergency Medicine
• Attending and contributing to the Trust's Clinical Effectiveness Programme
• Participating in the Trust's Clinical Incident Reporting system
• Support Quality Improvement Projects and the introduction of new technology/advances in clinical practice
• Developing a programme of personal continuing professional education, development and, if appropriate, research within available resources and within the workload and priorities of the service as agreed with Consultant colleagues and senior managers.