Consultant in Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The overriding purpose is to support the provision of highest quality patient care through personal actions and continuous improvement.

Clinical

• The appointee will be responsible for the management of a full range of Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology emergency and elective patients who are admitted to University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
• 1: 3 Consultant of the Week for the Rheumatology service including adhoc on-call service (for advice until 2200 hrs)
• Provision with Consultant colleagues of a comprehensive elective and emergency Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology service.
• Provision of reciprocal cover for periods of leave.
• Provision of OOH advice to the General Paediatric team and PICU teams, for managing admitted patients and patients attending Paediatric ED

The Department of Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology provides clinical services for patients with all types of rheumatic disease.  Referrals are received from the primary care, community paediatric team and other Departments within the Trust. Joint injections under Entonox care carried out in the day care unit and the GA list. The team works in close relationships with all paediatric sub-specialities including Dermatology, Endocrine, Respiratory, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Gastroenterology and Nephrology speciality teams. There is a dedicated Paediatric Uveitis service. There is a dedicated transitional process, attended by an Adult Rheumatology colleague. Patients in the age group 14-18 yrs. are reviewed in the transitional clinic and after 18 yrs. transitioned to the dedicated Young Adult Rheumatology clinic run by the Adult Rheumatologist. The post holder is also expected to continue to develop the existing service for Hypermobility and Non-Inflammatory MSK conditions.

Inpatients are cared for out of hours by either the General Paediatric Team or the PICU team. Currently, there is no OOH on-call rota for Paediatric rheumatology service, but a 0.5 PA is allocated in acknowledgement that current consultants do provide out of hours advice until 10 PM.

These duties are subject to review from time to time considering the changing requirements of the service.  If alterations to the described duties are required these will be mutually agreed upon between the appointee, his/her Consultant colleagues, and the Trust. The person appointed will be required to devote substantially the whole of his/her time to the duties of the post and give them priority at all times.

Governance and Audit

Each consultant is expected to take an active role in clinical governance activities including (but not restricted to) clinical audit, incident reporting, review of complaints, risk management, CPD and Evidence-Based Practice. Each directorate has a Consultant Clinical Governance lead. 

Research

The Trust has extremely close links with Leicester University and has academic departments in the majority of its clinical specialities. There are University and Trust research facilities. The Trust has a research strategy and management framework which aligns its funding for research with the research and innovations activities it supports. Consultants who wish to undertake research require the approval of the Trust R&I Department and relevant ethical approval and must adhere to the local and National Framework for Research Governance. The selected candidate is expected to participate in all the research activities of the Paediatric Rheumatology Service. Extra PAs will be provided for dedicated research role.

Other Duties as Agreed

The appointee may wish to take on other roles alongside their clinical role.  Any positions offered by bodies outside the Trust, (e.g. Training Programme Director, Regional College Advisor, Royal College Representative etc,) must be discussed and agreed upon by the Head of Service in advance of the position being accepted, so that the impact upon the speciality can be fully considered and any job plan amendments are undertaken should the additional role be accepted.