WORCESTERSHIRE ACUTE HOSPITALS NHS TRUST
ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL, REDDITCH
CLINICAL TEACHING FELLOW IN SURGERY
JOB DESCRIPTION
JOB SUMMARY
This post combines experience in a clinical speciality with undergraduate teaching of medical students, based at the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch. The post holder will be expected to work closely with our teaching fellow in medicine to deliver teaching.
The post is suitable for trainees whose career would be advanced by the opportunity to develop clinical skills along with specialist teaching skills. This might be of interest to registered practitioners who are studying for a higher qualification, writing up research, or applying for higher specialist training rotations, or any combination of these. It may also appeal to higher trainees who wish to take time out of a training programme, subject to the approval of the appropriate Specialist Training Committee. Remuneration for 40 hours will be at the appropriate point on the nationally agreed specialty registrar pay scale for daytime duties. Applications are welcome from doctors wishing to work part-time.
WORCESTERSHIRE ACUTE HOSPITALS NHS TRUST
1. INTRODUCTION
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was established in April 2000. It provides acute services across the entire county of Worcestershire and incorporates the Alexandra Hospital at Redditch, Kidderminster Hospital and Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
The Trust employs 4,500 staff and serves a population of over 570,000. The Trust has embarked on a major redevelopment and modernisation of its services with the opening of a new county hospital in Worcester in 2002 and a Treatment Centre at Kidderminster in December 2003, which includes a Minor Injuries Unit. A major capital development programme is currently ongoing at the Alexandra Hospital including a new Postgraduate Medical Education Centre.
Following a strategic review of acute services in Worcestershire, certain services have been focussed in specific parts of the county. For example, Vascular Surgery is based at Worcester. Where appropriate, other services, such as Endoscopy, are provided from all three sites in order to provide a locally accessible service
The main aim of the Trust is to extend its role as the pivotal provider of general and acute hospital services for Worcestershire. This will include offering local people an increased range of specialist services whilst remaining consistent with national initiatives and priorities.
2. ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL, REDDITCH
The Alexandra Hospital is a modern district general hospital located in Redditch which is a new town to the South of Birmingham, within the pleasant Worcestershire countryside. The hospital services a population of approximately 200,000. The population is located predominantly in Redditch and the nearby town of Bromsgrove. Both towns are close to the major motorway network of the M42, M5 and M6.
The Alexandra Hospital is a new hospital of “nucleus” design, opened in 1986 with 350 mainly acute beds, and 20 day-case beds.
It has a dedicated Day Unit, ITU, CCU and a full Out-patient Department covering all specialties on site. Out-patients are also held in the nearby Princess of Wales Hospital (Community Trust) in Bromsgrove. The Alexandra Hospital has a newly built state of the art Postgraduate Medical Education Centre and is in close proximity to Birmingham University Medical School and the local teaching hospitals.
The Hillcrest Unit is the acute mental health unit. This is a new building, opened November 1994 and is on site at the Alexandra Hospital. This is part of the Community Services Trust.
The hospital has specific county-wide elective urology and orthopaedic and trauma services, including a hand surgeon, utilising dedicated facilities. Pathology, therapy, pharmacy and radiology services support the clinical specialities. Antenatal clinics, obstetric and maternity services with a children’s ward and a mother and baby unit are on site.
In addition to its clinical facilities, the hospital has an on-site crèche, shop restaurant and café. Local leisure facilities are well developed and the area has easy access to Birmingham where the National Indoor Arena, National Exhibition Centre and Symphony Hall are located. Stratford and the world famous Royal Shakespeare Company are less than 15 miles away.
3. WORCESTERSHIRE ROYAL HOSPITAL
The Worcestershire Royal Hospital, including the refurbished Aconbury East and West Blocks, (550 beds) opened to patients in March 2002. It is a ‘state of the art’ building which accommodates Accident and Emergency, General Medicine including a Coronary Care Unit, Endoscopy Suite, Diagnostic Cardiac Catheterisation Suite, Gynaecology, General Surgery, Consultant and GP Maternity Unit, Children’s wards and a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, ITU, HDU, Orthopaedic, Surgical Specialist beds, ENT, Maxillo-facial surgery, Diabetic Centre, sub-acute Medicine, Rheumatology, Ophthalmology, Microbiology, Histopathology, Haematology, Biochemistry, X-Ray and Neurophysiology. There are 9 operating theatres including 4 ‘laminar’ theatres.
The facilities for Medicine include a 26 place Medical Assessment Unit, an 11 bed Medical Short Stay Ward and 136 acute medical beds, a new dedicated 8 bed Stroke Assessment Unit, an expanded 8 bed Coronary Care Unit with step down facilities and expanded Critical Care facilities. There is also a fixed diagnostic cardiac catheterisation laboratory and dedicated facilities for permanent and temporary pacing.
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On the same site as the new hospital there are a further 106 medical beds on the Aconbury East and West blocks providing rehabilitation, stroke rehabilitation, step down and rheumatology services.
In addition to its clinical facilities, the hospital has an on-site crèche, shop, restaurant and café, which includes 24 hour catering.
4. KIDDERMINSTER HOSPITAL
Kidderminster Hospital comprises 18 medical rehabilitation beds, a 24 hour Minor Injuries Unit, Endoscopy suite, day case theatre and 20 day case beds, a satellite renal dialysis unit, 20 GP beds and a comprehensive out-patient service. There is also an oncology out-patient suite and a nurse led midwifery unit.
The hospital has been redeveloped as a Treatment Centre (TC), providing day case and short stay elective treatment and diagnostic services.
BACKGROUND TO THE POST
We have for some years provided undergraduate teaching to small numbers of medical students from the University of Birmingham. These students have appreciated the teaching and wealth of clinical experience available and many have chosen to return as junior doctors.
Birmingham University Medical School is updating its undergraduate curriculum to meet nationally identified training needs. In addition, to meet the national requirement for more doctors, annual student entry has greatly increased. Clinical teaching now takes place in many of the general hospitals within the region. Redditch provides clinical teaching for third, fourth and 5th year medical students. The Head of Clinical Teaching Academy is Dr K Nathavitharana.
These changes have led to an increase in the teaching demands on medical staff. The Teaching Fellow will contribute to the teaching, but also undertake a clinical role, to enable other members of staff to fulfil their teaching commitments and to provide service in the Surgical Department and the Emergency Department (ED).
THE DEPARTMENTS
The Surgical Department
There are approximately 2500 day case operations; 1300 inpatient operations; 1950 emergency episodes; and 5500 new and 10000 follow up outpatient attendances carried out yearly by the consultants based at the Alexandra Hospital. There are 3 general surgery wards (1 male, 1 female and 1 short stay open 5.5 days) giving a total of 62 adult, and access to a share of 8 children, inpatient beds at the Alexandra Hospital. In addition within the Directorate, there is a 28 bed Urology Ward; a 28 bed trauma and 28 bed orthopaedic elective surgery ward. There are 6 inpatient operating theatres, two of which are predominantly used by General Surgery, with ancillary accommodation and an 8 bedded Day Surgery unit with 2 theatres.
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Outpatient clinics are also performed at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bromsgrove and Kidderminster Hospital.
The department consists of:
Consultants:
Mr. R. Tudor – (Clinical Director) Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon
Mr. A. Wetherall – Consultant Surgeon General Surgery / Colorectal Surgery
Mr. R. Brown – General Surgeon (interest in breast surgery)
Mr. S. Sivapragasam – Consultant Surgeon General Surgery / Breast Surgery
Mr. N. Purser – Consultant Surgeon General Surgery / Breast Surgery
Junior Medical Staff:
3 Specialist Registrars
3 Staff Grades
4 Senior House Officers
1 Trust Doctor (SHO level)
5 FY1
In addition, there are 2 Clinical Nurse Specialists for Breast Care Services and 2 Clinical Nurse Specialists for Colorectal/Stoma Care.
The Emergency Department (ED)
The Alexandra Hospital provides a modern emergency service dealing with approximately 50,000 patients per year, 23% of whom are paediatric cases. It has facilities to resuscitate, diagnose and treat acute illness and injury with appropriately trained and experienced staff, according to current national and local standards, with the onward referral of patients as appropriate. The hospital operates cardiac arrest and trauma teams, however in-hours the consultant-led ED team is responsible for all resuscitations. The department has formal induction and education programmes, and an evidence-based CD-ROM of guidelines which is distributed to all junior doctors working in the ED.
The department consists of 3.8 consultants, 2 specialist registrars, 3 staff grades, 1 clinical fellow, 3 F2s, 3 SHOs and 1 F1. There are Emergency Nurse Practitioners (ENPs) who will also assess and discharge patients from the ED.
There are 2 entrances for patients, one of which is designated for patients arriving by 999 ambulances. All patients and visitors to the department will be received and cared for in line with our ‘Philosophy of Care’.
It has a clinical lead for the management of major incidents. The West Midlands Air Ambulance Service also transports seriously injured / ill patients to the department. An open ED run observation unit opened in 2007 and care of the patients in this unit will be an integral part of the middle grade role.
It provides support for the ENPs at Bromsgrove Minor Injuries Unit via the PACS link, and there is a high quality patient management IT system running in the ID.
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There is a separate paediatric area for our patients between 0 – 16 years of age, ensuring children and their families are cared for within an appropriate setting.
Consultant review clinics are held Monday – Friday 9.30 a.m. – 11.00 a.m. ED medical and nursing staff are able to refer patients to this clinic.
Consultants: Dr. S. Crawford, Mr. C. Hetherington, Mr. G. O’Byrne, Mr. R. Morrell
The department has ample clinical areas including:
Large reception and waiting area
Children’s waiting area
3 bay resuscitation area
12 x consultation / examination rooms
6 x minor’s cubicles
Triage room
Eye / ENT examination room
Plaster room
Dedicated paediatric area
Dedicated Seminar / Education room
FACILITIES
The Alexandra Hospital has a new Multi-disciplinary Education Centre with state of the art audiovisual facilities and a lecture theatre with 120 seats. A Practical Skills room with a ward/domestic training bay set out to represent a 3-bed ward (with space for a further 3 beds) allows realistic ‘hands on’ practical education in a safe environment; to facilitate this a ‘SimMan’ patient simulator is available in addition to the usual resuscitation training devices. The centre also has several smaller seminar rooms and 1 larger board room.
The library provides access to a wide range of multi-disciplinary literature and IT access to Medline and the internet. There are plans to install 24 computers initially, with a further 12 to be installed at a later date. There are also 3 private study rooms and a library training room. The undergraduate co-ordinator’s office is situated in the Education Centre.
The Trust has a well-developed Intranet, which is used extensively for education, publicising Trust policies and clinical protocols, providing access to PACs and pathology results.
TEACHING DUTIES
· To contribute to teaching across the Undergraduate Curriculum. It is expected that the Fellow will commit to a minimum of 5 sessions per week, averaged over the year, to undergraduate teaching.
· To assist with the organisation, monitoring and teaching of the undergraduate course at the Alexandra Hospital.
· To review the current structure and organisation of undergraduate teaching within the surgical specialties in order to instigate appropriate modifications.
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· To contribute to specific teaching in the relevant specialties including induction programmes.
· Accountability, with respect to the performance of teaching duties, is to the Clinical Sub-Dean.
· The post provides the opportunity to study part-time for a clinical educational qualification. This is strongly encouraged.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
· Full registration with the GMC is essential
· Candidates for the post of Clinical Teaching Fellow should have completed at least one, preferably two, years of General Professional Training. This must include at least 12 months of basic surgical training.
· The successful candidate will be expected to show a commitment to a career in a surgical specialty.
· The post does not currently have educational and training approval from the Regional Postgraduate Dean.
TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT
Working hours are 40* per week, Monday to Friday, based at Alexandra Hospital, but will be expected to travel to other units. Fellows are not required to be on-call; however, on-call work may be undertaken voluntarily by separate arrangement with the relevant department. Fellows undertaking out-of-hours emergency duties will be subject to the current New Deal provisions with respect to hours of work, rest periods and locum rates of pay. It should be noted that on-call work arrangements should not compromise teaching commitments.
You must maintain confidentiality, security and integrity of information relating to patients, staff and other Health Service business.
You will be entitled to study leave in line with pp. 250 – 254 of the current National Health Service Terms & Conditions of Service for Hospital Medical and Dental Staff and Doctors in Public Health Medicine and Community Health Service (England & Wales). Funding for study leave will be in line with West Midlands Deanery recommendations.
Training in clinical techniques will be provided and attention will be paid to your professional development needs.
*Part-time hours may be negotiated, subject to mutual agreement.
HEALTH AND SAFETY