Consultant in Acute Medicine

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS trust in the United Kingdom seeks a consultant for its Acute Medical Unit. You will provide senior clinical leadership, manage complex patient cases, and participate in governance activities. Responsibilities include ensuring effective patient flow and supervising junior staff. Ideal candidates will hold a medical degree with consultant experience in acute medicine. This position offers opportunities to shape service delivery and contribute to training within a diverse team.

Qualifications

• Registered medical practitioner with consultant experience in acute medicine.
• Ability to manage complex clinical scenarios and make decisions quickly.
• Experience in training, mentoring, and supervising junior staff.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior clinical leadership in the Acute Medical Unit.
• Participate in clinical governance activities and incident reporting.
• Contribute to patient flow management and safe discharge planning.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Patient management

Team collaboration

Infection control

Education

Medical degree

Consultant experience

Tools

Electronic Staff Records system

Job description

Overview

The Acute Medical Unit is a 39-bedded assessment and short-stay Ward located on the ground floor of the hospital. Of the 39 beds, 11 are side rooms (including 4 negative pressure isolation rooms for infection control purposes). The care of patients on the Ward is divided between two acute medical teams each led by an acute medicine consultant, with each team caring for 15-16 patients. The development of our SDEC services has allowed for the prevention of avoidable admissions and management of patients along ambulatory / same day emergency care pathways. Acute medical patients are referred to SDEC along established pathways following emergency presentation to ED, or can be referred directly from GPs or NHS111 via our dedicated acute medicine Hot Phone. LAS directly conveys suitable patients to SDEC following the Trusted Assessor model. Patients also attend SDEC as part of early supported discharges from AMU and the medical take. SDEC operating hours are 8am-8pm 7 days a week. We are currently expanding our SDEC Team to accommodate increased demand. Admission avoidance and early discharge are further supported by our dedicated therapies team. Specialty in-reach is provided by medical specialties. Participate in clinical governance activities including incident reporting and patient safety initiatives. Provide senior clinical leadership and expert management for patients presenting with acute medical conditions. Contribute to safe discharge planning in partnership with community and primary care services. Promote early senior decision-making to support effective patient flow. Provide clinical supervision, training, and mentoring to resident medical staff and support their professional development. Show flexibility and undertake different appropriate clinical tasks at the request of the clinical manager, as the need arises. To provide clinical supervision for specialist registrars, An indicative job plan/timetable for this post with indicative Programmed Activities (PAs) is provided below, but this will normally be re‑assessed after 3 months of appointment to ensure it meets the needs of the service. For a whole‑time 10 PA contract: the baseline split is: · Direct Clinical Care: 8.0 PAs on average per week (Clinical activity, clinically related activity, predictable & unpredictable emergency work) · Supporting Professional Activities: 1.5 core SPAs (CPD, audit, teaching & training) and 0.5 Quality and Service SPAs to be agreed with appointee (assumed to be educational supervision). An additional 0.5 SPA is available to all Consultant Staff subject to review and agreement for quality and service roles which must be approved prospectively by the Clinical Director, or by the Medical Director for Trust‑wide roles. Job plans are reviewed annually, and applicants are encouraged to study the provisions of the Consultant Contract for England 2003 under which this post is offered. Supporting Professional Activities (SPAs): Delivery of the highest quality service possible is the main priority of this department. This means integrating evidence‑based practice, research, audit, and other aspects of clinical governance, particularly the delivery of quality training and risk management. There are many areas for service development and requirements for working with all healthcare professionals and specialties. There are a number of different shifts within the annualised acute medicine consultant rota: the following description covers the shifts duties, the average workload and the shift frequency. · AMU A & B: 0800-1600 (1.75 DCC PAs + 0.25 SPA PAs/day): 8‑10 am post‑take round in ED then named consultant for half of AMU each (15‑16 patients) [frequency: 65 shifts per year]. · SDEC: 0800-1700 (2.0 DCC PAs + 0.25 SPA PAs/day): named consultant for SDEC supporting ANPs and resident doctors, holding referral & advice hot phone [frequency: 33 shifts per year]. · PTWR & Day Take: 0800-1700 (2.25 DCC PAs): 8‑10 am post‑take round in ED then named consultant for the medical take. The average medical take is 50 patients/24h. [frequency: 33 shifts per year]. · Additional standalone SPA activity (up to 2 SPA PAs/day). · Weekday Evening Take: 1700-2000 (0.83 DCC PAs) [frequency: 1 shift per month (on a fixed evening between Monday and Thursday), plus 1 in 14 Fridays]. · AMU weekend: o Saturday 0800-2000 (4 DCC PAs) and Sunday 0800-1700 (3 DCC PAs) alternate with: o Saturday 0800-1700 (3 DCC PAs) and Sunday 0800-2000 (4 DCC PAs). o Post‑take round in ED then responsible for half of AMU (15‑16 patients), medical take in the afternoon until the end of the shift. AMU consultant supporting SDEC. o 1.75 of SPA PAs for the rest of the week, on a day of own choice. o Compensatory time off/zero hours is included following a weekend displacing normal clinical activity. o [The weekend frequency is 1 in 8]. We have adopted annualised job plans and the exact timetable of shifts are allocated to take account of annual leave requests and other agreed specialty activities whilst maintaining cover in all clinical areas. There are opportunities to swap with colleagues where the need arises after the rota is written. The exact allocation of shifts on the rota also takes into account individual skills and preferences across the Consultants contributing to the Acute Medicine Rota, eg some consultants contributing to a higher proportion of SDEC or take shifts. Dedicated time for DCC admin duties (reviewing results, attending MDT meetings, dictating letters, virtual clinics, etc) is included in the AMU and SDEC shifts (0.25 PA per shift). On Call Duties There is evening and weekend scheduled working as per above shifts description. This post does not currently include participation in the overnight or weekend out of hours on‑call rota, therefore no on‑call supplement applies. + AT

Additional Information

• Apprenticeship Training. Where AT is entered next to the job title indicates that this vacancy is for an apprenticeship role.

+ By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers. Therefore we require you to complete your stat and Man e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.

+ If you are an EU/EEA citizen who does not have EU Settlement or Pre-Settled status, you will require a visa to work in the UK.

+ You must be eligible to work in the United Kingdom or meet the criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship, and these will be considered alongside all other applications. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role meet the eligibility requirements under the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points-based system to avoid disappointment. You can view this here

+ If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre‑employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a "selfie" using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

+ The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

+ The Trust will request a DBS (CRB) if post involves regulated activities. The Trust is compliant with the Disclosure and Barring Service Codes of practice and the Rehabilitation of offenders act.

+ By applying for this post you are agreeing to Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

+ Please be aware of scams - unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments. For further support on submitting an application please refer to the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit: https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1

The North Middlesex University Hospital, Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust is a medium-sized acute and community trust with over 525 beds and over 600 community staff, serving more than 600,000 people living across Enfield and Haringey and the surrounding areas, including Barnet and Waltham Forest. In the year ending 31 March 2022, the Trust reported a turnover of £419.7m and employed almost 4,000 staff. Following the transfer of Enfield Community Services on 1st April 2023, this has increased as we have welcomed over 600 new staff including District Nurses, Community Matrons, Community Physiotherapists, Psychologists and many more across a wide range of adult and children's community services in Enfield. In January 2025 we joined the Royal Free group: it is an exciting time to join North Mid as we continue our journey to become an integrated care organisation to deliver high quality, seamless care in our local communities, with a focus on tackling health inequalities. North Mid is part of North Central London integrated care system - consisting of the NHS and Local authority organisations in Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. As with other IC

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients. Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers' money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation. Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.