Trust Fellow in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (ST5+)

Employer heading

Trust Fellow in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (ST5 )

Trust Doctor

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest and largest NHS foundation trusts in the country, with around 15,000 staff and an annual budget of £1.6 billion.

We have a long history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, and innovation in medical research regionally, nationally and internationally.

We’re in the top five providers of specialised health services in the country, supporting people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

Our staff oversee around 6,500 patient contacts each day, delivering high standards of healthcare.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

Newcastle Hospitals are proud to be one of the exemplar organisations across the NHS on sustainability, with a long history of delivering Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle (Shine) and the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency. Our strategy includes commitments to being Net Zero by 2030, for our direct carbon footprint, and Net Zero by 2040 for our footprint plus. Delivering these ambitions will not be possible without the help, support and action of every single member of our team.

Job Overview

We are delighted to present the following opportunities for future posts as Trust Fellows in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive care at the Freeman Hospital.

The surgical caseload in this tertiary referral centre consists of approximately 1200 adult cardiac /thoracic cases per year, including transplantation, aortic surgery, VAD implantation, and adult congenital. There is a well-developed thoracic surgery and cardiopulmonary transplantation programme. We do 30-35 ECMO cases per year, mainly VA ECMO. We provide critical care support to our tertiary cardiology services which include primary PCI, heart failure, TAVI and advanced life support. Transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography is widely used and taught. There is ample opportunity for clinical research and audit.

In addition to the challenges of the role, we can offer you a commitment to teaching, education, research and audit.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

Please Read Attached Job Description And Person Specification.

Main duties of the job

The post is suitable for those candidates who wish to take time out of their training programme or who are already accredited and wish to pursue a career in cardiothoracic anaesthesia and/or cardiothoracic intensive care. It would suit and can be tailored to the needs of applicants from various disciplines such as Anaesthesia, Critical Care, Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery.

For an informal discussion and further information regarding the opportunity and Directorate, please contact: Dr Vikrant Pathania, Dr D Timon, or Dr James Park on 0191 233 6161 EXT: 37488, or at Vikrant.pathania@nhs.net, Deepak.gregory@nhs.net or Sharadaprasad.suryaprakash@nhs.net

Please Read Attached Job Description And Person Specification.

Working for our organisation

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest, largest and most successful teaching NHS foundation trusts in the country, with around 16,000 staff and an annual income of £1 billion. We have a long history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, and innovation in medical research regionally, nationally and internationally.

We’re also proud to be the second largest provider of specialised services in the country. This means we support people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

Our staff oversee around 1.84 million patients ‘contacts’ each year, delivering high standards of healthcare.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

The post involves working in cardiothoracic theatres, cath labs and the cardiac intensive care unit. About half of the working time would be in theatres, with the other half in the cardiac intensive care unit. Training could be tailored to each individual’s specific needs and includes the following:

Anaesthesia for all types of adult cardiac and thoracic surgery

• This will initially be under direct supervision, but as the experience and competence of the appointee increases this will be under extended supervision by a named consultant. Experience in cardiopulmonary transplantation will mainly be out of hours and includes heart, heart-lung, single lung and bilateral sequential lung transplantation. Live related donor lung transplantation has also been performed at the Freeman Hospital. There is also a Ventricular Assist Device Programme for chronic heart failure patients as a bridge to transplantation.
• Recent introduction of TAVI and Robotic CABG surgery.
• Adult congenital surgery.
  
  

Principles and practice of cardiopulmonary bypass

• A 2 week block in the perfusion may be arranged if requested.
  
  

Thoracic Anaesthesia

• There are 5 all day thoracic lists per week. It is anticipated that the appointee will acquire basic skills in fibre-optic and rigid bronchoscopy in adults during his/her tenure.
  
  

Intensive care for adult cardiac patients

• This is with particular emphasis on pharmacological and mechanical support of the cardiovascular system following cardiothoracic surgery. There are daily teaching/business ward rounds in the adult ITU led by consultant anaesthetists, with a further business round in the evening. The anaesthetic department is responsible for the post-operative management of transplant and VAD patients. Experience and training in the use of inhaled nitric oxide therapy and Novalung therapy is provided during the tenure of the post.
  
  

On-call

• There is a 2-tier anaesthetic trainee rota. The rotating ST3 from the Northern region will be on a full shift rota covering ITU mainly. The appointee will be 2nd on-call on a full shift 1:7 frequency rota covering both theatre and ITU. We are looking to expand this tier to allow an additional fellow to cover cardiac theatres.
  
  

Duties And Responsibilities For Cardiothoracic Intensive Care:

The post is based in our Cardiothoracic Intensive Care unit. The unit has twenty one level three beds (six isolation cubicles) and seven level two beds in an adjoining area. Duties are based in these areas but extend to support deteriorating patients on the wards, support for cardiology emergencies and accompanying patients during transport to other centres.

Intensive care for adult cardiac patients

• We work closely with the transplant, VAD and ECMO teams, and the successful candidate will be expected to take a particular interest in the management of our complex patients requiring advanced support. There are twice daily transplant and VAD rounds with further mutual support and joint decision making as required. Freeman is unique in the UK in offering transplant services for all solid organs on one site and there are close ties with experts in other disciplines such as microbiology, radiology and haematology who frequently assist our team.
• We support the cardiothoracic surgical programme which includes revascularisation, valve surgery, aortic root surgery, ASD repair, VSD repair, pericardectomy and the successful candidate will be involved in the post operative management of these patients. We are a national centre for adult congenital cardiac surgery and we care for these incredibly complex patients on our ITU following their surgery. Our cardiology colleagues require support for some primary PCI or heart failure patients and we provide support in the management of patients who have had an out of hospital cardiac arrest. We have a thoracic surgical programme which includes laser and stents for major airway obstruction. We have a team specialising in the management of pulmonary hypertension and we provide critical care support for their challenging patients.
• We offer advanced haemodynamic monitoring for example by PA catheter and echocardiography. Besides pharmacological cardiovascular support we use various forms of mechanical support such as intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation, Impella, LVAD, RVAD, VV and VA ECMO. We frequently use Nitric Oxide.
• There are two medical ward rounds each day led by a consultant with an interest in Cardiothoracic Critical Care. Our morning round which is concerned with the detail of patient management and there is an evening business round to plan for overnight care.
• We have a multidisciplinary approach, working closely with, for example nursing, physiotherapy, microbiology, nutrition, pain, psychology, speech and language therapy.
• The trust is in the process of adopting a paperless medical record. Our medicines prescription, administration, investigation ordering and results with various documentations are electronic, and we will be adopting a fully paperless system for critical care medical and nursing records in the near future.
  
  

On-call

• There is a 2-tier rotational trainee / fellow rota, with advanced critical care practitioners participating in the first tier rota. A rotating ST3 from the Northern region or an ACCP will be on a full shift rota covering ITU mainly. The appointee will be 2nd on-call on a full shift 1:7 frequency rota covering predominantly ITU, but providing support to theatres if required or appropriate.
  
  

Duties and Responsibilities for both Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and/or Intensive Care:

Echocardiography

• The appointee is expected to acquire a working knowledge of the fundamentals of echocardiography during the tenure of the post. The cardiothoracic anaesthetic department runs a week long TOE course twice a year. It would be an opportunity to acquire the certification in transoesophageal echocardiography.
  
  

Post-operative analgesia techniques, with special reference to thoracic surgery

• Attendance on pain ward rounds is recommended.
  
  

Audit and research

• The appointee will be encouraged to undertake audit and research projects during the post.
  
  

Education

• The appointee will be encouraged to participate in teaching for medical students, nursing staff and less experienced trainees, and to undertake the preparation of topical reviews. There are weekly departmental educational meetings which are co-ordinated by the Specialist Trainees.
  
  

The Trust Fellow appointed to this post will be allocated a consultant educational supervisor. He/she will be expected to maintain a logbook of activity, to ensure that his/her training can be easily reviewed and optimised in conjunction with the educational supervisor. This logbook should be made available for external assessment if required.

Flexibility:

In line with the Trust’s core value of placing patients at the heart of everything we do, we are developing our service provision to be responsive to the needs of our patients. To meet those needs some staff groups will be increasingly asked to work a more flexible work pattern so that they can offer services in the evening or weekend. As a result any offer of employment to a consultant post will be subject to you agreeing to work a new more flexible pattern or working in the future if required, including evening and weekend work.

For full details please see attached Job Description and Person Specification

Person specification

Education And Qualifications

Essential criteria

• MBBS or equivalent.
• Working towards FRCA and/or FFICM(for intensive care fellows) or equivalent.
• Must hold full GMC registration or be eligible to obtain full GMC registration within 3 months.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Other relevant qualifications (ALS, ATLS, CCrISP).
  
  

Clinical Skills and Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Good history & examination skills.
• Able to formulate a working diagnosis.
• Able to order appropriate investigations.
• Image interpretation relevant to practice.
• Knows when to appropriately seek assistance from a senior colleague.
• Experience in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Intensive care
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Neat, legible writing of notes/charts.
• Computer skills.
• Previous NHS Experience.
• Experience in transoesophageal Echocardiography.
  
  

Maintaining Clinical Competence

Essential criteria

• In 4th year of anaesthetic ST training or equivalent.
• Evidence of smooth progression through training programmes.
  
  

Teaching

Essential criteria

• Have experience in teaching undergraduate medical students and/or Foundation Year 1 Doctors.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Willingness to develop new approaches to teaching and learning.
  
  

Clinical Governance, Audit and Research

Essential criteria

• Experience of Audit projects.
• Understanding of research principles
  
  

Communication, Relationships and Working with Colleagues

Essential criteria

• To be clear, fluent and articulate in communication in English
• Experience and ability to work in multi-professional teams.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Ability to organise.
  
  

Personal Attributes

Essential criteria

• Alignment with the Trust’s Values.
• Flexible approach to service delivery and committed approach to development.
• A commitment to personal / unit CPD
• Time management skills.
• Honesty, integrity, awareness of ethical dilemmas, respect for confidentiality.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Evidence of leadership skills.
• IT literate.
  
  

Important note on completion of reference section of Application Form

All references from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. Therefore, when completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay.

Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail. You should check your SPAM folders as well as your inbox. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 647.8KB)
• Newcastle Staff Benefits (PDF, 274.4KB)
• Behaviour and Civility Charter (PDF, 93.8KB)
  
  

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name Louise Scorfield Job title HR Advisor Email address Louise.Scorfield@nhs.net