Clinical Specialist Cardio-Respiratory Occupational Therapist

Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust; City Of London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 47,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare provider in London is seeking a clinical specialist cardio-respiratory Occupational Therapist. In this role, you will manage a specialist service, provide clinical support for complex cases, and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams. The ideal candidate will possess excellent communication and leadership skills, along with specialized experience in critical care. This position offers robust support services for staff, including continuous professional development and a comprehensive well-being program.

Benefits

Free shuttle bus between hospital sites

10 days of study leave annually

Comprehensive health and well-being services

Qualifications

• Must be a registered Occupational Therapist.
• Demonstrate competency in impairment assessment and intervention.
• Experience with critical care, ECMO and VADs preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage a specialist Occupational Therapy service.
• Provide expert clinical support to other medical staff.
• Coordinate intervention plans with patients and allied health professionals.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Leadership skills

Clinical reasoning

Manual therapy techniques

Collaboration with multidisciplinary teams

Education

Degree in Occupational Therapy

Job description

Overview

A vacancy at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. This is a clinical specialist cardio-respiratory Occupational Therapist (OT) position at The Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals. The post includes inpatient rehabilitation with ECMO and VADs, Critical Care, Stroke patients, and Cardiothoracic surgery, and involves working closely with other Allied Health Professionals within a multidisciplinary team. The post holder will need excellent communication and leadership skills.

As part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust, we care about our staff. We offer: a free shuttle bus between hospital sites; 10 days of study leave a year; excellent opportunities in research and quality improvement; a comprehensive health and well-being service.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for the management of a specialist Occupational Therapy service in conjunction with the Therapy Lead in their specialist area and contributes to/leads departmental management and Trust initiatives in strategic planning and development of a specialist Occupational Therapist service across the whole organisation.
• Uses expert clinical reasoning skills to provide highly specialist support and advice to the occupational therapy team and other medical staff, whilst maintaining a clinical caseload of highly complex patients.
• Professional and clinical leadership in the development and implementation of a comprehensive training and personal development plan for all designated occupational therapy staff and, in conjunction with the management team, strives to ensure excellence of training across the whole organisation.
• Supports the Therapy Lead in a specialist area to identify and implement clinical research, audit and data collection priorities within the area of own expertise to inform departmental clinical development strategy.
• Responsible for maintaining and improving all aspects of clinical governance, evidence based practice and quality assurance in designated area.
• To play a major role in the continuous development of the service as a member of the Occupational Therapy team and as a potential member of a range of Trust quality/process improvement project groups.
• To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of the practitioner’s professional activities.
• To carry out assessment, analysis and formulation of best care programmes for a wide range of patients as an expert autonomous practitioner, including those with highly complex presentations, using clinical reasoning, evidence-based practice, and advanced rehabilitation expertise to determine appropriate care plans with highly specialist treatment skills and options.
• To be responsible and accountable for own and department patient care plans, including discharge planning, and to provide consultation as an expert on occupational therapy within the specialist area with advice and guidance for junior and senior team members and other health care professionals both within and outside the Trust.
• To coordinate intervention which may include other disciplines; advise and educate patient/carers/relatives/other health professionals.
• To manage clinical risk within own caseload at all times and ensure clinical risk is effectively managed across the specialist Occupational Therapy service.
• To demonstrate physical ability to carry out Occupational Therapy assessment and interventions including manual therapy techniques and therapeutic handling.
• To demonstrate highly developed dexterity, coordination and palpatory sensory skills for assessment and manual treatment of patients.
• To be highly competent in assessing and managing a wide range of conditions within their own specialist area based on advanced theoretical knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology, often in situations where conflicting evidence is present.
• Able to interpret and analyse clinical and non-clinical facts, which may be conflicting, to form accurate diagnoses in highly complex conditions for patients in the designated area.
• To use advanced theoretical and practical knowledge to refer to other health disciplines as appropriate and to ensure appropriate referral systems are used by departmental and other health professional staff.
• To provide expert Occupational Therapy input to the development of both Trust and National level initiatives within own specialist area.
• To develop collaborative treatment plans with patients, carers and colleagues both in the hospital and patient’s home environment, demonstrating ethical clinical reasoning and problem solving techniques to determine agreed outcomes across health and social care.
• To ensure safety for self and others during all occupational therapy interventions in hospital, on home visits and appropriate environments.
• Liaise with Social Services, District nursing teams and community therapy teams to ensure rehabilitation packages and equipment are in place.
• Work alongside MDT colleagues and other rehab and therapies services to ensure services are delivered at a high and consistent quality.
• To maintain high professional standards, continuously promoting and developing quality improvements appropriate to the needs of the Occupational Therapy Service and profession.
• To understand and apply national guidelines and legislation relating to health and social care in Occupational Therapy practice.

About the Trust

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation. We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and, as part of King’s Health Partners, we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have one of the National Institute for Health Research’s biomedical research centres, established with King’s College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities. Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ in February 2021 and is the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK and among the largest in Europe. We provide treatment for people with heart and lung disease, including rare and complex conditions, offering some of the most sophisticated treatment available anywhere in the world. Our integrated approach to caring for patients from before birth, through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood and old age has been replicated around the world and has gained Royal Brompton and Harefield an international reputation as a leader in heart and lung diagnosis, treatment and research.

Requirements

Professional/ Clinical Responsibilities include being professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of the practitioner’s professional activities; carrying out assessment, analysis and formulation of best care programmes for a wide range of patients as an expert autonomous practitioner; being responsible for own and department patient care plans including discharge planning; coordinating interventions and ensuring clinical risk is effectively managed; demonstrating physical ability for OT assessment and interventions; maintaining high professional standards and applying national guidelines and legislation relating to health and social care in OT practice.

Please see job description for full job description.

This advert closes on Monday 13 Oct 2025