Locum Consultant - Resident - Neonatal Unit

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key tasks:

·                     Maintenance of the highest clinical standards in the management of all neonatal patients born or transferred into the hospital.

·                     To share, with colleagues in the Neonatal Department the management of neonatal patients requiring admission to Neonatal Intensive Care or Transitional Care alongside oversight of postnatal babies requiring medical management or senior review.

·                     To share in the provision of outpatient follow-up of any neonatal patient who requires ongoing management in the community up until the age of 2 years or until care is formally transferred to another specialty such as paediatrics.

·                     To share with consultant colleagues in providing the resident Neonatal consultant out-of-hours rota.

·                     Teaching and training of intermediate grade and, junior medical staff, nursing staff and medical students.

·                     To actively participate in both departmental and Trust matters concerning Clinical Governance and audit.

·                     To have responsibility for and actively participate in continuing professional development (CPD).

1.     

3.    Duties of the Post: Locum Consultant in Neonatal Medicine

This post is part of a dynamic and enthusiastic team of 14 Neonatal Consultants who deliver a comprehensive emergency and long stay service on the Unit and follow up for neonatal unit graduates for the first 2 years of life.

The Neonatal Consultant team work attending weeks in the Intensive Care Unit, the Special Care Nursery and Labour ward/Post-natal wards on a rotating basis with 3 consultants being on weekday daytime clinical duty at any one time. The post-holder will undertake 1 attending week in every 6 week rota cycle which will rotate between ITU1, delivery suite/postnatal ward and Special Care/ITU2. He or she will liaise with the Community Neonatal Team to ensure the safe monitoring of babies discharged early from the neonatal unit. The appointee will follow the Trusts No avoidable Infection Strategy and take a full and active role in Safeguarding. Consultants with special interests to complement those of current Consultant staff are encouraged to apply. Candidates will preferably have Neonatal National Grid Neonatology Training (see person specification).

3.1 Job Plan for 10 Programmed Activities (PAs)

The job plan is a prospective agreement that sets out a consultant’s duties, responsibilities and objectives for the coming year. It will covers all aspects of a consultant’s professional practice including clinical work, teaching, research, education and managerial responsibilities. It provides a clear schedule of commitments, both internal and external. In addition, it provides personal objectives, including details of links to wider service objectives and details of the support required by the consultant to fulfil the job plan and objectives.

A 10 PA week divides into approximately 8.5 PAs for clinical activity and a minimum 1.5 PAs for Supporting Professional Activity (SPA) in agreement with the Clinical and Divisional Directors. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges estimates that 1.5 SPAs per week is the minimum time required for a consultant to meet the needs for CPD for revalidation purposes. CPD activities encompass clinical, personal, professional and academic activities. If required and agreed additional SPA time above 1.5 should be linked to organisational objectives, such as, research, clinical management or medical education roles.  The Job plan allocation for Clinical Activity and SPA will be reviewed three months after appointment.  A diary exercise will provide evidence of activities.  Thereafter review will be annual. 

In addition to the fixed clinical sessions necessary to provide continuous cover in the clinical area, flexible sessions that include time for teaching, administration, management and clinical governance will be discussed and agreed.

A job plan will be agreed by the Clinical Director for Neonatal Medicine in the first instance and approved by the Job Planning Advisory Reference Group (JPARG) on behalf of the Chief Executive.  This plan will be reviewed annually.   The annual review will be used to check that the record of fixed and flexible sessions is accurate and compliant with the EWTD; covers acute commitments and is compatible with the agreed template for the speciality and that any problems arising can be resolved.   This also provides an opportunity for constructive debate about the individual’s personal development plan including CPD and any evolving special interests which the appointee may wish to pursue.

Schedule 10 fee Paying Services (as per Terms and Conditions – Consultants (England) 2003) work may be undertaken within the Terms and Conditions of Service and may be discussed and revised at time of review

The provisional Job Plan takes into account activity over 42 weeks per year. The Trust runs an annualised job plan for all consultants, with job planning assisted by the online MyL2P tool.

This is a 6 week rolling rota recurring 8.66 times per year.