Head of Regional Radiotherapy Physics Services

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We have 9 Varian TrueBeams, 2 Tomotherapy units, 3 CT Scanners, 1 SXT unit and 1 HDR brachytherapy unit across our two sites, all within an Aria environment.  We are one of the few radiotherapy centres with a dedicated MR scanner and are leading nationally in the delivery of MR only planning solutions.  External beam treatment planning is carried out using the RayStation and Elements systems. Plans are checked using Radcalc and Mobius systems and transit IVD is in routine clinical use.  We are fully utilising AI auto-contouring and are leading nationally on the NHS England ProKnow evaluation.

NCCC treats approximately 6000 new patients per year employing a wide range of therapies including multi-met SRS, lungs SABR, HDR gynae brachytherapy, TBI/TSEI, gated lung therapy and cardiac SABR. 

We also deliver the AHCS MSc academic program for clinical scientist training as well as FRCR training and local STP and route-2 physicist training

We are an international reference site for Siemens radiotherapy imaging systems, BrainLab Elements and deliver the Varian Advanced Workflow implementation (VAWI) clinical school.

Job Purpose: 

• NCCC provides a regional radiotherapy service to a population of circa 3.3million, with day-to-day provision for circa 2.0million across the North East and North Cumbria.
• This management position within NCCC/NCCC-NC involves the full range of management accountabilities including day-to-day operational management of the departments in both Newcastle and North Cumbria. A key objective for the post holder is to ensure equity of service delivery across the geographically spread treatment locations.  This requires the post holder to ensure effective agreement exists between the departments in delivery of both strategic and operational objectives in order to deliver integrated care pathways.
• The role provides radiotherapy professional leadership to the Radiotherapy Operational Delivery Network (ODN) responsible for providing radiotherapy system leadership and the delivery of NHS England’s vision and ambitions for the modernisation of radiotherapy services.
• The post holder takes day-to-day responsibility for delivery of the radiotherapy department’s key performance indicators as laid out in the NHS England’s service specification. This includes achieving the national cancer waiting time targets including the 62 and 31-day waits.
• The post holder is responsible for specifying, evaluating and procuring the full fleet of radiotherapy equipment in Newcastle and North Cumbria. In Newcastle this is comprised of 7 linear accelerators, 2 Tomotherapy units, 2 CT scanners, 1 dedicated MRI scanner, access to SPECT CT, a Flexitron high dose rate brachytherapy afterloader and 1 Superficial unit.  In North Cumbria, there are a further 2 linear accelerators, 1 CT scanner and access to MRI planning scanning resource.
• The role includes management of the Brachytherapy & Mould Room service, Dose Planning, Radiotherapy Physics and Radiation Engineering across both Newcastle and North Cumbria. The total staffing compliment extends to approximately 70 whole time equivalent scientific and technical staff with a further 2 administrative support staff.
• The annual budgetary management responsibilities for this role include £4.2million for the staff resources, £1.5million for equipment maintenance contracts and ongoing specification, evaluation and procurement responsibilities for the £25million equipment inventory
• As part of the senior management team, the post holder will work collaboratively to propose and implement changes across the directorate’s two delivery centres. 

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay.