Consultant Palliative Care

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust; Worcester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking a substantive Palliative Medicine Consultant to join the Hospital Palliative Care Team. The post will support inpatient care, provide clinical leadership to the multidisciplinary team and help establish the COMPASS service launching in late 2026/early 2027.

The role is advertised as 10PA with flexible working options and includes leadership, teaching and cross-site collaboration across Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

Qualifications

• This post requires Full GMC Registration and entry on the Specialist Register in Palliative Medicine (or expected within 6 months).
• Candidates should have CCT or CESR, and be able to demonstrate GMC licensure and rights to work in the UK.
• Evidence of higher qualifications and ongoing medical education is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist advice and patient review for in-patients with an ad hoc outpatient caseload.
• Lead service development and supervise trainees, residents and medical students.
• Support the new COMPASS service and participate in on-call duties with peers.

Education

GMC Registration (Full Licence to practise)

Specialist Register in Palliative Medicine (or expected)

CCT or CESR (CP)

CESR or

European Community Rights

Intercollegiate Exam or overseas equivalent

Higher degree

Job description

We are seeking a substantive Palliative Medicine Consultant to join the established Hospital Palliative Care Team at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. The successful applicant will join the existing Palliative Medicine Consultant Team to provide high-quality care to hospital inpatient, and to those important to them. The successful candidate will also provide clinical advice, support and leadership to the multidisciplinary Hospital Palliative Care Team. This role will also support a new service in the hospital based in acute receiving areas (COMPASS - Community Outreach Model for Palliative Assessment Step up/ Step down) due for launch in late 2026/early 2027 which aims to guide patients and professionals to the right care in the right place at the right time.

The post is advertised as 10PA but applications for less than full-time working are welcome.

As part of the Consultant AAC, shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide a 5 minute presentation on the topic: Delivering High-Quality Palliative and End-of-Life Care in Acute Hospitals - My Vision for the First Three Years in Post.

Interview date: Friday 8th January 2027

Main duties of the job

Provide specialist advice, support and patient review for hospital in-patients and their clinical team, with a small ad hoc outpatient caseload. Work closely with consultant colleagues and represent palliative care at multidisciplinary meetings. Collaboratively, with consultant team, lead service development and promote appropriate use of the generalised and specialist palliative care across the Trust. Supervise and teach specialty trainees, clinical fellows, resident doctors, medical students and other professionals. Support the new COMPASS service. Attend relevant Trust, cross-site and system meetings and contribute to committees and working groups. Share the countywide out-of-hours Palliative Medicine on call rota primarily, providing telephone advice but to attend for face to face review of patients when clinically necessary. Demonstrate willingness to undertake additional responsibilities within the team, such as the role of Governance Lead. Protect confidential information, comply with data-protection requirements, Trust policies and procedures, and the NHS Constitution.

About us

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

Our workforce is more than 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient‑centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us. Our values, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Being open and honest

Ensuring people feel cared for

Showing respect to everyone

We are committed to developing a culture of continuous improvement by embedding the principles of our Improvement System.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

DBS Checks and Costs

Any applicants who are offered posts requiring a DBS check as part of their employment check will have the cost of this check (at the current rate) deducted from their salary. Please see link in Supporting Information section for more details on DBS checks and costs.

Job description

Job responsibilities

This job description, together with the job plan, will be reviewed annually and agreed with the Clinical Director and Divisional Director, on behalf of the Chief Medical Officer, to ensure that it continually reflects the areas of work, clinical responsibility of the post and purchaser requirements.

• A suitably experienced post-holder will be expected to provide a clinical service in the relevant specialty to patients of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and to General Practitioners.
• The post-holder will be expected to provide a service to patients of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, General Practitioners and to attend multi-disciplinary meetings. The successful candidate will be expected to work within multi-disciplinary teams in providing high quality clinical care. It is anticipated work will be undertaken on three sites and closer to the patients home. The Trust is seeking to extend services to GP surgeries/health centres etc and job plans may be revised in due course.
• The post-holder will provide support to the A&E department and acute medicine to ensure timely appropriate care and patient flow through the hospital. The post-holder will provide consultation and advisory service to clinical colleagues in the Trust and Primary Care.
• The post-holder will attend cross county and cross site meetings.
• The post-holder will collaborate with colleagues to deliver a high quality, timely service and to work towards meeting the Trusts and departmental objectives.
• The post-holder will, if relevant, participate in the on call rota to ensure that both emergency and urgent services are provided out of normal hours, to be shared equally with Consultant colleagues in post.
• The Trust would expect a consultant whilst undertaking on-call duties to attend the hospital site to review patients when clinically necessary. The consultant on call must be prepared to attend willingly whenever requested to do so by a member of their medical and nursing team.
• The post-holder, whilst undertaking weekend on call duties, will attend the hospital to undertake patient reviews.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Full GMC Registration with a Licence to practise.
• Entry on the GMC Specialist Register in Palliative Medicine (or expected within 6 months of interview date) via
• CCT or CESR (CP)
• CESR or
• European Community Rights
• Success in Intercollegiate Specialty Examination or overseas equivalent

Desirable

• Higher degree

Experience

Essential

• Clinical training and experience equivalent to that required for gaining (UK) CCT in Palliative Medicine
• Ability to offer expert clinical opinion on range of problems both emergency and elective within specialty
• Ability to take full and independent responsibility for clinical care of patients

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Ability to work in a team
• Enquiring, critical approach to work
• Ability to communicate effectively with patients, relatives, GPs, nurses and other agencies
• Commitment to Continuing Medical Education

Desirable

• Willingness to undertake additional professional responsibilities at local regional or national levels

Teaching Experience

Essential

• Ability to teach clinical skills to medical, nursing staff and other disciplines
• Experience of teaching clinical skills to undergraduates and postgraduates

Desirable

• Ability to supervise postgraduate research

Other Requirements

Essential

• An understanding of the current NHS environment, particularly in relation to reforms, initiatives and issues
• Able to meet the travel requirements of the job and return to the hospital within 30 minutes when on call

Management and Administrative Experience

Essential

• Ability to organise and prioritise workload effectively
• Ability to advise on efficient and smooth running of specialist service
• Ability to organise and manage outpatient priorities, including Virtual Ward caseload
• Ability to manage and lead the specialty firm and multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of audit management and conducting clinical audit

Desirable

• Ability to manage and lead specialist unit and working parties as appropriate
• Ability to use the evidence based and clinical audit to support decision making

Research Experience

Essential

• Ability to apply research outcomes to clinical problems
• An awareness of current specialty specific developments and initiative

Desirable

• Publications in relevant peer- reviewed journals in the last 5 years
• Evidence of having undertaken original research