Consultant in Emergency Medicine

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You are required to be on the GMC specialist register for Emergency Medicine or be within 6 months of obtaining your CCT or CESR by the interview date.

The job plan for this post is flexible and will be tailored to accommodate the needs of both the candidate and the department. It is a full-time post that can attract up to 12 programmed activities (PA). However, LTFT working is fully supported.

For a 10PA post this would consist of 7.5 DCC and 2.5 SPA. The current work pattern consists of three-four consultant shifts per week day (early 08:00–17:00, day 10:00 - 18:00; mid 12:00 – 20:00 and late 15:00–22:30 or 16:00 - midnight) and two shifts per weekend day (08:00 – 16:00 and 13:00 – 22:00). A typical 10PA job would consist of two to three clinical and one non clinical day per week with one on call. The current weekend on call frequency is 1:6 with DCC provided 08:00–22:00. 

Participate in the day-to-day work of the ED:  Assessing and managing patients de novo and supporting junior staff in delivering high quality emergency care. This includes managing the shop floor as the EPIC (Emergency Physician In Charge), team leading in the resuscitation room, performing procedural sedation, supervising junior doctors from FY2s through to higher speciality EM trainees, interacting with inpatient speciality teams and managing the RAT area.

Supporting Professional Activity: Consultants receive a minimum of 1.5 SPA for revalidation purposes and additional SPA up to a maximum of 2.5 PA per week total for any other responsibilities such as educational supervision or being an appraiser.  Additional PAs for leadership roles within the department are available, such as clinical leads or governance lead. Many consultant colleagues undertake a range of external duties as part of the job plan including work for HEMS, NICE, HEE, NHS England and the medical examiners office.

Leadership opportunities: Each emergency department has a clinical lead and there are multiple other opportunities to take on leadership roles within the department, such as governance lead, trauma lead and teaching lead. There are wider leadership roles available within the trust, including Associate Medical Director roles and committee member roles. Many current ED consultants undertake these roles and involvement in wider trust work is actively encouraged.

Participate in a full on-call rota: The on-call commitment is shared between all the other EM consultants with internal prospective cover. The on-call is site-specific. The current weekend frequency is 1 in 6. As part of your on-call duties, DCC admin time is specifically allocated for investigating incidents, answering complaints and reviewing x-ray reports.

Participating in departmental teaching: We run monthly middle grade education afternoons and weekly SHO teaching in various aspects of emergency care combined with a shop floor based clinical education session. We recently won the RCEM Learning Environment of the Year Award. We have good working relationships with other specialists and often invite them to share their expertise and experiences and run joint SIM sessions. We have access to simulation facilities on both sites and a number of our consultants are trained in the delivery of simulation training. Development of this skill would be encouraged. We have a strong ultrasound training faculty and clinical educator program.

Attendance at departmental meetings: Our consultants meeting is fortnightly and it is the forum at which we discuss various matters pertaining to management, trainees and patients. These meetings are conducted over Microsoft Teams.

Staff management: As a consultant you will be expected to provide clinical supervision to junior doctors rotating through the department. This involves guiding them through their time in the department, helping them with audit projects and offering career guidance when necessary. There are also opportunities to progress to educational supervision of Foundation year doctors, ACCS, GPVTS, ST3 & Higher Specialist Trainees in Emergency Medicine after attending the Health Education Wessex training course. Additional responsibilities associated with this are attendance at ARCP panels and dealing with doctors in difficulty.

Clinical Governance: The department holds monthly clinical governance learning meetings which are open to all staff within the department where serious incidents, Coroners cases and trends in complaints and incident forms are discussed. We use these as fora to discuss possible changes to our practice which can improve our patient care. The successful candidate will be encouraged to participate in these and to review any incidents arising from their duty shifts with the support of our departmental governance staff. 

Research: The Emergency Department is research active. We have participated in a number of national and international research studies (HALT-IT, CRASH 3, BEST, RAIDS, ATOMIC 2). We support the TERN and PHOTON research networks and encourage multidisciplinary involvement in research.   Our team research nurses support the recruiting process and following up of patients. Candidates would be required to support research activity in the department and will be expected to complete and maintain currency in GCP training. A candidate with a special interest in research would be welcomed.

Regional Training: As a department we contribute to the Wessex Emergency Medicine Trainee Association (WREMTA) education programme, a responsibility shared with other Trusts in the region. Wessex region has a reputation for delivering exemplary higher specialist training for EM in the UK and consistently achieves excellent results in the FRCEM examination. In addition we are responsible for the organisation of the regional mock FRCEM examination every five years. As a consultant within this department you would be expected to support these programmes, either supervising or delivering educational sessions.

Continuing Professional Development: In the fast-moving speciality that is emergency medicine maintaining up-to-date practice is supported by the availability of study leave to attend various courses and professional leave to instruct on courses. SPA time is not prescriptive and there is a degree of flexibility allowed in how it is arranged. Study leave is allocated at 10 days per year and study budget at £1000 per year.

Other managerial responsibilities: Each consultant individually holds responsibility for attendance on the various Committees in the Trust. You will be expected to take on your share of these responsibilities in order to develop our service and foster links with the other departments.