Locum Consultant Cellular Pathologist interest in GI Pathology

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will be accountable to the Clinical Lead in Cellular Pathology.

Key duties and responsibilities

Specialist Interest

The Department operates a system of specialist reporting, each consultant having one or more special interests, which facilitates dealing with difficult cases and enhances patient care in accordance with Calman-Hine recommendations.

The specialist diagnostic pathology to be delivered by this locum post is gastro-intestinal histopathology. However, a second specialist interest would be considered as a minor component of a post, depending on the requirements of the department at the time.

Gastro-intestinal pathology:

The successful candidate will be joining an existing team of 9 substantive consultants several of whom have other speciality interests. The current gastro-intestinal histopathology team includes both full time and part-time consultants – Dr Ula Mahadeva, Dr Harriet Deere, Dr Baljit Gill-Barman, Dr Michael Green, Dr Mark Ong, Dr Vivek Sekhawat, Dr Mojisola Giwa, Dr Maria Buttice, Dr Benita Stevenson.

Responsibilities include the reporting of over 10,000 GI specimens (biopsies and resections from upper and lower GI tract, ‘surgical’ liver biopsies and a few biliary tract biopsies).

GSTT is the Upper gastrointestinal cancer centre for South-east London, Medway and East Kent and regional network referral centre for anal tumours. It is also a tertiary referral centre for coeliac disease, complex Inflammatory Bowel Disease cases, the management of early neoplasia in Barrett’s oesophagus and EUS Fine Needle Biopsies (the latter reported by the cytopathologists).

The surgical specimens encompass the standard neoplastic and non-neoplastic resections for upper and lower GI, including oesophago-gastrectomies, but we also specialise in radical and salvage pelvic exenterations for complex/ recurrent colorectal and anal tumours.

We routinely perform (in-house or outsourced) cancer predictive marker testing for the GI cancers, in accordance with national guidelines.

There are five MDM’s, four weekly and one monthly. These are Upper GI, Local Hepato-pancreaticobiliary, Lower GI and Inflammatory Bowel Disease MDMs weekly.

We are involved in multiple research studies and tissue banking.

We are committed to teaching postgraduate students as well as being involved in the university teaching of undergraduate students.

The team is actively involved in the teaching and training of histopathology resident doctors. Up to three histopathology resident doctors are allocated to the gastrointestinal pathology team monthly and are involved in all aspects of specimen dissection, histological interpretation and report writing.

Provide High Quality Care to Patients

·         The post holder must be medically qualified and maintain GMC full and specialist registration and hold a current licence to practice

·         To develop and maintain the competencies required to carry out the duties required of the post.

·         To ensure prompt attendance at agreed direct clinical care Programmed Activities.

·         To provide expert histopathology services with the object of ensuring a high standard of patient care

·         To participate in clinical and other service activities with the object of ensuring a high standard of patient care 

Research, Teaching and Training

·         Where possible to collaborate with academic and clinical colleagues to enhance the Trust’s translational research portfolio, at all times meeting the full requirements of Research Governance.

·         To provide high quality teaching to medical undergraduates and members of other health care professions as required by the Clinical Director.

·         To act as educational supervisor and appraiser as delegated by the Clinical Director to ensure external accreditation of training post.

Performance Management

To work with medical, nursing and managerial colleagues to ensure high performance in the following areas:

·         Clinical efficiency e.g. LOS reductions, reducing cancelled operations and DNA rates.

·         Quality of outcomes e.g. infection control targets, reducing re-admission rates.

·         Financial management, e.g. identification, implementation and achievement of cost improvement programmes and participating in efforts to ensure services are provided cost effectively such as managing locum agency spend, monitoring and managing the drug budget to target, ensuring accuracy of clinical data for the team.

·         Operational efficiency, e.g. day-case rates, waiting list activity and demand management.

Medical Staff Management

·         To work with colleagues to ensure junior doctors’ hours are compliant in line with EWTD and New Deal.

·         To ensure that adequate systems and procedures are in place to control and monitor leave for junior medical staff and to ensure that there is appropriate cover within the clinical areas, including on-call commitments

·         To participate in the recruitment of junior medical staff as and when required.

·         To participate in team objective setting as part of the annual job planning cycle.

·         To be responsible for the annual appraisal of all doctors in training, Trust doctors, Clinical Fellows and non-consultant grades as delegated by the Clinical Director/General Manager.

Governance

·         To review clinical outcomes in designated area using external benchmarking data where appropriate, to identify and advise variances to the Clinical Director.

·         To participate in clinical audit, incident reporting and analysis and to ensure resulting actions are implemented.

·         To work closely with the Directorate, Patient and Public Involvement panels in relation to clinical and services developments as delegated by the Clinical Director.

·         To participate in ensuring NICE requirements are reviewed and implemented and monitored in the speciality areas.

·         To ensure clinical guidelines and protocols are adhered to by junior medical staff and updated on a regular basis.

·         To keep fully informed about best practice in the speciality areas and ensure implications for practice changes are discussed with the Clinical Director.

·         To role model good practice for infection control to all members of the multidisciplinary team.

Strategy and Business Planning

·         To participate in the business planning and objective setting process for the directorate and Trust where appropriate.

·         To represent the Trust at appropriate clinical networks/other external clinical meetings, as delegated by the Clinical Director.

Leadership and Team Working

·         To demonstrate excellent leadership skills with regard to individual performance, clinical teams, the Trust and when participating in national or local initiatives.

·         To work collaboratively with all members of the multi-disciplinary team and Kings Health Partners as required.

·         To chair regular meetings for the specialties.

·         To resolve conflict and difficult situations through negotiation and discussion, involving appropriate parties.

·         Adhere to Trust/departmental guidelines on leave, including reporting absence.

The successful candidate will be expected to participate in continuing professional development (CPD) and this form part of the supporting programmed activities in the agreed job plan (please see example below).