Consultant in Palliative Care

Transformation Unit; Bury St Edmunds; Remote; GBP 114,000 - 151,000; Part time

Job summary

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust seeks a Consultant in Palliative Care to join a multidisciplinary team. This replacement post covers both acute hospital inpatient work and community-based care, ensuring patients receive expert palliative services close to home and in their communities.

The role includes developing educational activity, leading on-call duties, and contributing to service development across hospital, hospice, and community settings within the Trust footprint.

Qualifications

• MBBS or equivalent with GMC registration.
• MRCP (UK) or equivalent postgraduate qualification.
• MD or PhD or related postgraduate qualification.
• Postgraduate qualification in Palliative Medicine.
• Full GMC registration with licence to practise.

Responsibilities

• Share responsibility for day-to-day running of the Palliative Medicine department.
• Provide direct and indirect specialist Palliative Medicine advice to inpatients.
• Provide Palliative Medicine advice to patients in the community with colleagues at St Nicholas Hospice Care.
• Develop and deliver palliative care education to health care professionals.
• Participate in the consultant telephone 2nd on-call rota.
• Contribute to planning and development of palliative care services in the area and ICB.
• Participate in governance and audit, CME and revalidation, and keep up to date with developments.

Skills

Advanced communication skills

Time management

Research literacy

Education and training delivery

Education

MBBS or equivalent

MRCP (UK) or equivalent

MD or PhD

Postgraduate qualification in Palliative Medicine

Full GMC registration with licence

Job description

Main area Medicine Grade NHS Medical & Dental: Consultant Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 8 sessions per week (Mon-Fri on-call 1:8) Job ref 179-8226648-MSC

Employer West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust Town Bury St. Edmunds Salary £113,565 - £150,569 Pro Rata Per Annum Salary period Yearly Closing 05/11/2026 23:59 Interview date 08/12/2026

Consultant in Palliative Care

NHS Medical & Dental: Consultant

Job overview

This is a replacement, permanent 8PA post which presents an exciting opportunity to contribute to a high quality, patient centered service in a supportive multidisciplinary team.

The post will cover both acute hospital inpatient work and work within community settings, ensuring patients can be seen and supported where ever they are.

The role involves delivering expert clinical care, providing specialist advice to healthcare professionals, participating in the on-call rota, and supporting the development of innovative services that enable patients to receive care closer to home.

The successful candidate will join a team of consultants in Palliative medicine supported by nurse specialists in both acute and community settings. There are opportunities to develop sub specialty interest where this contributes to and complements the department and Trusts' service needs. There are undergraduate & postgraduate education and research opportunities available.

Main duties of the job

To share with colleagues’ responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Palliative Medicine department.

To provide direct and indirect specialist Palliative Medicine advice and support to hospital inpatients in West Suffolk Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

To provide direct and indirect specialist Palliative Medicine advice and support to patients in the community, in conjunction with colleagues at St Nicholas Hospice Care

To provide Palliative Medicine consultant input within the community through joint working with other specialties and other providers

To develop and deliver palliative care education to health care professionals at all levels

To participate in the consultant telephone 2nd on call rota across Suffolk and Great Yarmouth & Waveney

To contribute to the planning and further development of palliative care services in the area and across the ICB

To actively participate in both departmental and Trust matters concerning Clinical Governance and audit

To fulfill obligations relating to continuing medical education, professional development, appraisal and revalidation and to keep up to date with new developments in the field of palliative medicine.

Please see Job Description for full vacancy details

Working for our organisation

#BeKnown at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. By us. By our patients. By our community

We are a busy, friendly, rural NHS Trust providing high-quality care and compassion to more than a quarter of a million people across west Suffolk. We care for, treat and support people in hospital, at home and in various community settings.

The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds provides acute and secondary care services (emergency department, maternity and neonatal services, day surgery unit, eye treatment centre, Macmillan unit and children's ward). It has 500+ beds and is a partner teaching hospital of the University of Cambridge.

Adult and paediatric community services, provided in collaboration with West Suffolk Alliance partners, include a range of nursing, therapy, specialist, and ongoing temporary care and rehabilitation, some at our Newmarket Community Hospital.

We do our utmost to achieve outstanding clinical outcomes for patients and our values of fairness, inclusivity, respect, safety and team work guide how we work and behave as a team.

With nearly 5,000 staff, from all over the world, we strive to make our organisation a great place to work. Whatever your role or ambition, we want to help you be the best you can be.

We promote a diverse and inclusive community where everyone's voice counts and you can #BeKnown for whoever you are.

Join us. What will you #BeKnown for?

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will work within the Medicine directorate, with managerial responsibility to the Clinical Director. This post is a replacement.

There are currently four Consultants in Palliative Medicine (3.4 WTE) working within West Suffolk, supporting patients in the hospital, hospice and community.

The hospital palliative care team support over 1200 patients a year. The team is currently staffed by 5.7 WTE CNS’s, with a Band 8a Team Lead/Practice Development Nurse.

The hospital team has close links with the chaplaincy team, the Acute Oncology Team, the discharge planning team and other specialities such as Oncology, Haematology, Frailty, Cardiology and Renal.

The Trust delivers services to patients seven days a week and aims to provide equality of treatment and outcome regardless of the day of the week. To meet these aims and changing service requirements, the Trust may need you either to work temporarily outside of your core hours or to permanently change your core working days and hours. The Trust will give you reasonable notice, where possible, of temporary changes to your days or hours of work and will consult with you and/or your staff representatives about substantial permanent changes, but ultimately, these are changes which may be required of you.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Entry on the GMC specialist register in Palliative Medicine or be eligible for entry (within six months of attaining Certificate of Completion of Training) at the time of interview and hold a licence to practice.
• Full GMC registration with a licence to practise
• MBBS or equivalent
• MRCP (UK) or an equivalent postgraduate qualification
• MD or PhD
• Postgraduate qualification in Palliative Medicine or a related subject

Knowledge and Skills

• Completion of approved JRCPTB curriculum in Palliative medicine or evidence of equivalent knowledge,
• Ability to offer expert clinical opinion on a range of palliative medicine problems.
• Awareness of current speciality specific clinical evidence, developments and guidelines
• Ability to manage own time, workload and prioritise clinical work
• Completion of advanced communication skills training
• All applicants to have demonstrable skills in written and spoken English that are adequate to enable effective communication about medical topics with patients and colleagues which could be demonstrated by one of the following: PLAB 1 PLAB 2 However, if applicants believe that they have adequate communication skills but do not fit into one of the examples they need to provide evidence.

Experience

• Clinical training and experience equivalent to that required for gaining UK CCT in Palliative medicine
• Ability to take full and independent responsibility for clinical care of patients
• Experience of managing patients with palliative care needs in inpatient, outpatient and community settings
• Ability to offer expert clinical opinion on a full spectrum of Palliative Medicine issues

Teaching and Training

• Experience of supervising resident doctors and advanced practitioners
• Experience of workplace- based assessment
• Experience in delivering undergraduate and postgraduate teaching
• Postgraduate teaching qualification
• Experience of organising and delivering medical or multiprofessional teaching programmes

Management and Audit Training

• Ability to organise and manage day to day service delivery e.g.in-patient priorities
• Ability to contribute to strategic developments in service delivery
• Experience of audit and quality improvement frameworks
• Ability and willingness to work within the Trust and NHS performance framework and targets
• Understanding of current NHS environment, particularly in relation to palliative and end of life care
• Experience of Leadership roles

Research and Publications

• Ability to apply research outcomes to clinical problems
• Publications in peer reviewed journals
• Ability to supervise research projects
• Experience of taking part in a research project

Personal Skills and Qualities

• Commitment to working well within a multi-professional clinical team
• Ability to deal effectively with pressure
• Commitment to Continuing Medical Education and the requirements of Clinical Governance
• Positive approach to job planning and appraisal process

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Name Dr M McGregor Job title Palliative Medicine Consultant- Clinical Lead Email address [emailprotected] Telephone number 01284 712578