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The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

About
- Radiotherapy, in one of the world's largest radiotherapy departments and at our satellite radiotherapy centres in Oldham and Salford
- Chemotherapy, in the UK's largest chemotherapy unit, as well as via 10 other sites, a mobile chemotherapy unit and in patients’ homes
- Highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer. Click here to find out more about surgery at The Christie.
- A wide range of support and diagnostic services
Find out more about how we treat cancer.
We are a national cancer specialist based in Manchester
We serve a population of 3.2 million people across Greater Manchester and Cheshire while 26% of our patients are referred to us from across the UK.
We have an annual turnover of £230 million, operating with 2,500 staff, 300 volunteers, 30,000 public members and one of the largest hospital charities in the UK.
Find out more about our Foundation Trust
We have been delivering world-first breakthroughs for over 100 years
The Christie has been named, by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), as one of the best hospitals providing opportunities for patients to take part in clinical research studies.
The Christie has one of the largest trials portfolios in the UK, with over 650 active clinical trials.
We are part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre working with The University of Manchester and Cancer Research UK. We are also one of seven partners in the Manchester Academic Health Science Research Centre.
We established The Christie School of Oncology to provide undergraduate education, clinical professional and medical education - the first of its kind in the UK.
web site May 2018
Contact
- Address
- The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
- Wilmslow Road
- Withington
- Manchester
- M20 4BX
- Contact Number
- 0161 446 3000
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Radiotherapy Physics Highly Specialised Practitioner
Accepting applications until: 27-Aug-2025 23:59
Vacancy status: Open
Accepting applications until: 27-Aug-2025 23:59
Key details
Location
- Site
- CMPE Radiotherapy Physics Services - D00001
- Town
- Manchester
- Postcode
- M20 4BX
- Major / Minor Region
- Manchester
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Salary
- Salary
- £55,690 - £62,682 per annum, pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Grade
- (Band 8a)
Specialty
- Main area
- CMPE Radiotherapy Physics Services - D00001
Job overview
Applications are invited for a highly experienced and motivated radiographer or dosimetrist to act as practitioner lead for adaptive radiotherapy within radiotherapy physics at The Christie. The applicant is required to have HCPC/RTC or equivalent registration, extensive treatment planning experience including novel techniques, as well as experience in quality improvement projects, technical service development and change management.
The successful applicant will work within a multidisciplinary team to develop the online adaptive radiotherapy service to be delivered using the Elekta Evo treatment platform. The service should build on the existing adaptive radiotherapy service that is currently delivered via the Elekta Unity MR Linac. There will be opportunity to contribute to the future development and innovation of adaptive radiotherapy workflows and clinical implementation.
Our clinical service relies on a variety of radiotherapy IT systems including RayStation and Monaco for treatment planning, the Mosaiq oncology management system and LimbusAI for auto-contouring. The successful applicant will need to develop expertise in these systems to fulfil the role. Training and development will be offered to support the development of skills as required.
This position will involve some proportion of the individual’s time being spent providing routine clinical and management duties within treatment planning at The Christie.
Advert
Adaptive Radiotherapy
The successful candidate will provide their treatment planning and workflow experience within the multidisciplinary team working to develop and implement online adaptive radiotherapy on the Elekta Evo treatment platform. This will involve leading a wide range of projects including quality improvement, technical service development and change management.
Clinical work in RT physics
The successful candidate will achieve and maintain planning and checking competency in a range of clinical sites including one specialist area within treatment planning.
Management
The role will involve line management responsibility for other staff and supervision of trainees.
The successful candidate will manage a range of projects relating to the implementation of adaptive radiotherapy with varying complexity and priorities.
The post holder will be required to deputise in the absence of the Lead Practitioner within Treatment Planning, including operational management of the treatment planning department.
Research & Development
The successful candidate will be expected to represent The Christie at relevant external meetings and conferences including the presentation and publication of their own work.
Teaching & training
The postholder will provide training for all staff across the radiotherapy network with specific focus on adaptive planning. They will deliver specialist teaching on external courses including MSc courses in collaboration with the University of Manchester.
Working for our organisation
The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.
We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years.
We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Be responsible for the technical and practical aspects of radiotherapy outlining (target and organ at risk volumes) for agreed sites taking due consideration of patient health status and co morbidities to include:
o Develop expert knowledge of the pathology of all relevant treatment sites and keep up to date with current and future developments in the area of expertise.
o In conjunction with the Higher Principle Clinical Scientist Adaptive Radiotherapy Lead, develop workflows and processes along with technical aspects of the adaptive service.
o When entitled to do so by the employer, undertake appropriate practitioner roles within IR(ME)R under a personal scope of practice. This is to be agreed on by employee, line management and clinical team with competence granted following a defined training framework, assessed by the clinical team.
o Provide specialist training and assessment of Radiographers, Clinical Technologists, Speciality registrars and other healthcare professionals in practical aspects of adaptive radiotherapy.
o Assist with the development, implementation and monitoring of clinical and organisational strategies within areas of expertise.
o Provide expert advice and support on local and national clinical trial quality assurance advancing and introducing best practice into the clinical workflow at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
- Be a leading member of the treatment planning service with respect to recruitment, appraisal, development, and discipline within the practitioner team.
o Provides professional technical leadership within their scope of practice within The Christie and across the network of radiotherapy providers.
o Participate in the management of clinical technical staff in the treatment planning group with respect to recruitment, teaching, appraisal, development, and discipline.
o Take responsibility for prioritising own workload and for allocating appropriate work to others as and when required. Organising progress of delegated work in a timely manner.
o Identify research and development projects in clinical treatment planning.
o Collaborate with medical staff and specialist Radiographers to ensure the timely progress of treatment plans and to ensure that clinical and all other requirements are achieved in the radiotherapy planning process.
o Actively participate in the application of QA programmes.
o Participate in the correct application of the Radiotherapy Physics Service ISO 9001:2015 system by participation and by assisting the Process Owners in maintaining standards and development of process improvements.
- Use specialist knowledge and specific training to act autonomously in assessing, planning, and implementing a comprehensive management plan within their defined scope of practice.
o Draw on a diverse range of knowledge in their decision-making to determine evidence-based therapeutic interventions, which will include treatment plan review and actively monitoring the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions through adaptive planning and making decisions regarding rescans and replans.
o Work in partnership with clinicians and patients to provide expert knowledge and support throughout the patient pathway including attendance at Multi-Disciplinary Treatment meetings (MDT) and by ensuring optimal target coverage through adaptive planning.
o Advanced specialist in depth knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology relevant to the area of work to enable accurate outlining of radiotherapy volumes required for treatment planning.
o Demonstrate continual evaluation of the patients and use expertise and professional judgement to make clinical decisions, recommending adjustments/amendments to treatment plans, in consultation with the patient and members of the multi-professional team.
o Utilise advanced communication skills to provide expertise in sensitive scenarios, apply the ethos of the employing trust confidentiality legislation.
Skills required for this post
Communication and Relationships
· Be a core member of the multidisciplinary team providing expert knowledge and advice, maintaining effective communication throughout the treatment pathway.
· Establish and maintain advanced communication with individuals and groups exploring complex issues relating to care options and decision making for a patient’s treatment plan.
· Communicates highly complex information relating to specialist procedures to colleagues, senior staff within the department and across a variety of disciplines.
· The post holder is required to lead negotiations, requiring tact and persuasive skills, within their service on a range of issues including:
o Changing work practices
o Areas of conflict between individuals or groups
· The post holder is required to develop positive working relationships at all levels in connection with their service particularly with respect to peer review across network radiotherapy providers.
Analytical and Judgemental
· Interpretation and formulation of complex technical data.
· Possess the scientific skills to interpret results and form a judgement on their significance in complex clinical situations.
· To contribute to the development of cost-effective technical solutions to clinical problems using professional judgement and an evidence-based approach in decision making.
Planning and Organisational
- Post holder supports the development and implementation of service wide strategic plans for adaptive radiotherapy, considering the aims and objectives of the Service / Section / Directorate / Trust and stakeholder organisations.
- Plans a complex range of activities in accordance with Trust objectives, standards, and priorities.
- Implements strategic plans developed by the various professional leads and Heads of Units.
Physical skills
- Ability to apply and adjust complex, sensitive equipment requiring the skill of hand-eye co-ordination and a high degree of precision.
- Ability to operate medical equipment safely and effectively for prolonged periods of time.
Patient care
Technical
- Take responsibility for reviewing and evaluating systematic and random variations in patient anatomy/shape during their treatment.
- Participate in the routine production of treatment plans for both highly complex and noncomplex cases, defining treatment geometry, calculating dose including distributions, and treatment delivery documentation.
- Ability to recognise and make an appropriate referral when a case is outside scope of practice following agreed processes.
- Participate in the checking of the above including complex and advancing techniques.
Physical
- Actively supports patients and their families through communicating difficult and highly complex sensitive information using a variety of advanced methods to ensure effective understanding in a timely manner.
- Ensure that accurate and appropriate written and verbal information is conveyed to the wider multi-disciplinary team to ensure effective management of patients.
- Adheres to professional code of conduct, works within the boundaries of their own scope of practice and always manage associated clinical risk effectively.
Policy and Service Development
- Implementing local, departmental and Trust policies to meet legal and statutory requirements.
- Actively involved in discussions on changes to policies within own area, which may impact across the Trust, to ensure they reflect best practice, thus maintaining and improving the quality of the services.
- Ensure new or amended protocols and procedures are correctly and uniformly implemented.
- Interprets policy and makes recommendations to steer departmental practice.
Research and Development
- Leads on local and national clinical trial quality assurance advancing and introducing best practice into the clinical workflow.
- Maintain up to date knowledge in the specialist field, using information to affect change in practice and ensuring effective dissemination of new knowledge.
- Participate in service development. Writes protocols, guidelines, and procedures for own remit which, impacts on other members of the multi-disciplinary team.
- Develops and supports the radiotherapy volume definition peer review strategy across the trust.
- Support relevant audit activity in the specialities to evaluate the effectiveness of care interventions and disseminates outcomes with any potential changes to clinical practice which improves health outcomes.
- Regularly audits own clinical practice and identifies actions to be taken from results analysis.
- Where appropriate actively participate or lead in research projects and/or support the wider multi-disciplinary team with research initiatives.
- Continue to develop and promote the advanced practitioner role through professional publications and conference papers
Effort and Environment
Physical Effort
- There is a frequent requirement to sit in a restricted position as a substantial proportion of the working time is spent using a computer.
- Performs physical examination and clinical skills regarding patient immobilisation with attendance at imaging, CT, MRI and mould room as appropriate.
- Safe moving and handling of patients into treatment position for immobilisation production as required, for CT and at treatment if appropriate to recreate initial immobilisation requirements.
Mental and Emotional Effort
- Frequent prolonged periods of concentration with frequent interruptions of an unexpected nature when required to react to clinical queries and situations arising.
- Frequent, direct and indirect exposure to highly distressing or emotional circumstances.
Working Conditions
-
- Direct patient contact, delivering direct patient care in a variety of settings in accordance with the need of the patient.
- Daily extensive VDU use
- The post holder may be required to travel throughout the region and further afield in order to conduct their role effectively.
The closing date for this post may be extended if there are insufficient applicants or brought forward if there is a high volume of applicants.
We want to ensure that everyone who works at the Christie or uses our services is welcomed, valued and treated with dignity and respect. The Christie values diversity and is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all and fair representation across the organisation at all levels. In support of these commitments, we particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people and people with disabilities for this post. Appointment will be only on merit.
We are committed to creating a balanced and diverse workforce. As such we welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Together we will foster inclusion and tackle inequity and health inequalities in cancer care.
As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy
All positions within the Christie are subject to the receipt of satisfactory written references, medical clearance and evidence of your Right to Work in the UK. Some roles will require a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check. Please note if you are successfully appointed to a post with this Trust, you will be required to pay for your own DBS Disclosure.
By applying for this post you are agreeing to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.
If you have not heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, I regret that on this occasion your application will have been unsuccessful.
The Inter-Authority Transfer (IAT) process is a critical and beneficial component of ESR and will form part of the recruitment process. In the event that you are successful following interview your previous NHS employment data, if applicable will be transferred from your current / most recent employer.
Overseas candidates wishing to apply for this position and who would require immigration sponsorship, may wish to self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship for the post on the UKVI website.
You should be aware the Trust operates a No Smoking Policy and therefore employees are not permitted to smoke at work.
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- DCR(T) or Degree in Therapy Radiography/degree in Clinical technology or equivalent.
- HPC registered therapy radiographer/ register of clinical technologists.
- Post graduate education/experience at Masters level within area of expertise
Desirable criteria
- Evidence of completion of a comprehensive treatment planning course
- Advanced practitioner accreditation with the society of radiographers/Full Membership of IPEM or other equivalent professional body
- MSc in relevant subject
Experience
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience in treatment planning
- Ability to operate complex planning systems
- Evidence of treatment planning activities in CPD
- Experience in training/teaching/ supervising staff
Desirable criteria
- Management of staff within radiotherapy physics
- Experience in modern and emerging clinical techniques (e.g. SABR, MR Linac and adaptive planning).
Skills
Essential criteria
- Able to concentrate and keep focused with constant interruptions
- Ability to remain calm and deal with stressful situations
- Able to manage difficult people/situations
- Able to work effectively and efficiently ability to maintain high standard of work with low error rates including accurate documentation and record keeping
- Able to prioritise and manage own and others workloads
- Able to act as mentor, supervisor, trainer and assessor Able to motivate staff
- Ability to communicate complex information across professional boundaries
- Sound decision making skills in complex situations.
- Computer literate.
- Analytical and reflective skills.
- Highly developed physical accuracy and hand-eye co-ordination.
- Used to working with change and innovation
- Multi-disciplinary team working
Desirable criteria
- Experience implementing change
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Understands the risks associated with radiation and the optimisation of patients treatments
- Thorough knowledge and understanding of specialist radiotherapy planning techniques including SABR, VMAT and IMRT.
- Knowledge of relevant legislation, national standards, professional guidelines (e.g. IRR2017, IRMER 2017, ISO:9K2K, Codes of Practice)
- Knowledge of current professional issues
- Knowledge and ability to ensure compliance with quality system
- A comprehensive knowledge of computerised treatment planning systems.
- Specialist knowledge of treatment planning and radiation physics as applied to radiotherapy.
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of clinical systems and their administration
Values
Essential criteria
- A willingness to undertake research and development
- Participation in service development/improvement
Desirable criteria
- Evidence of participation in research
Other
Essential criteria
- Professional Ability to work independently and exercise initiative.
- Self-motivated
- Flexible attitude to work
- Punctual
- Good team worker
- Conscientious
- Willing to participate in shift rota including working unsocial hours
Desirable criteria
- Outside interests
- Able to attend training courses involving periods away from home
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Rhiannon Goldstraw
- Job title
- Lead Practitioner Radiotherapy Physics
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01614468426
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