Clinical Specialist Cardio-Respiratory Occupational Therapist

Integrated Care System; London; On-site; GBP 64,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity for a Clinical Specialist Cardio-Respiratory Occupational Therapist to join a leading NHS trust. You will oversee a specialist OT service, manage complex patient cases, and develop your skills in a supportive multi-disciplinary environment. The role involves clinical leadership, research, and quality improvement initiatives.

Benefits

10 days of study leave a year

Excellent opportunities in research

Comprehensive health and well-being service

Qualifications

• Significant Band 7 level experience required.
• Occupational therapy management of ECMO patients needed.
• Experience leading service development as a Clinical Specialist.

Responsibilities

• Manage specialist Occupational Therapy service and team.
• Provide support and advice to healthcare professionals.
• Lead training and personal development for therapy staff.

Skills

Therapy leadership skills

Advanced specialist Occupational Therapy skills

Ability to communicate well

Education

Degree in Occupational Therapy

Post graduate Occupational Therapy qualification

MSc

Job description

Go back Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Clinical Specialist Cardio-Respiratory Occupational Therapist

The closing date is 27 July 2025

A fabulous opportunity to work as a clinical specialist cardio-respiratory OT at The Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals. This post will include inpatient rehab with ECMO and VADs, Critical Care, Stroke patients, Cardiothoracic surgery and Respiratory Medicine and will work closely with other Allied Health Professionals within a multi-disciplinary team model. The post holder will need excellent communication and leadership skills.

As part of Guys and St Thomas Trust, we care about our staff. We offer:

• 10 days of study leave a year,
• excellent opportunities in research and quality improvement
• a comprehensive health and well-being service.

Main duties of the job

• 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.

About us

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 that is 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.

Job responsibilities

Professional/ Clinical Responsibilities

• To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of the practitioners 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 and to use clinical reasoning skills, knowledge of evidence based practice and advanced rehabilitation expertise to determine appropriate care plan utilising 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 physiotherapy 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 co-ordinate 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, co-ordination 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 the most highly complex types of 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 patents, carers and colleagues both in the hospital and patients 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.

Please see job description for full job description.

Person Specification

Skills and ability

• therapy leadership skills
• ability to communicate well in highly sensitive, emotional matters
• Advanced specialist Occupational Therapy skills that may constitute extended scope
• Significant Band 7 level experience
• Occupational therapy management of ECMO patients
• Experience in occupational Therapy team management
• Experience in leading service development
• Previous experience working in a Clinical Specialist role
• Evidence of published data in recognised journals

Qualifications/ Education

• Degree in Occupational Therapy
• Post graduate Occupational Therapy qualification in appropriate area of specialty
• Full membership of a relevant Occupational Therapy SIG
• MSc
• Membership of other relevant Special Interest Group

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

£64,156 to £71,148 a yearper annum incl. HCA