Fellow in Adult Congenital Heart Disease Advanced Heart Failure -ST5+

The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS Foundation Trust in Newcastle upon Tyne is looking for a Fellow in Adult Congenital Heart Disease to join their adult congenital heart disease team. The successful candidate will have advanced training in cardiology and will be involved in the management of complex patient cases. The role emphasizes collaboration within a multi-disciplinary team and offers flexible working arrangements to suit both patient and staff needs.

Benefits

Commitment to teaching and education

Research opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience of teaching undergraduate medical students & Foundation Doctors.
• Written evidence of satisfactory training to date.
• Experience or understanding of audit projects.

Responsibilities

• Provide continuity of ward cover for complex ACHD patients.
• Perform initial assessment of ACHD patients referred for transplant.
• Attend and present cases at multidisciplinary meetings.

Skills

Good history & examination skills

Able to formulate a working diagnosis

Transoesophageal Echocardiography

Temporary Pacemaker Management

Ability to work as a team

Education

Primary Medical Qualification

Full GMC registration or eligibility to obtain

MRCP (or equivalent)

Job description

Fellow in Adult Congenital Heart Disease Advanced Heart Failure - ST5+

The closing date is 17 December 2025

We are delighted to be able to offer an opportunity for a highly motivated, ambitious individual to join our integrated adult congenital heart disease team.

The successful candidate will be an advanced cardiology trainee either specialising in Advanced Heart Failure or Adult Congenital Heart Disease. This is not a post for a Cardiothoracic Surgeon. They will be expected to be confident functioning as a member of the multi-disciplinary team in managing complex and challenging clinical situations. The post would ideally suit a candidate who wishes to pursue a career in ACHD with an interest in heart failure, although other sub-specialty interests particularly imaging (Echo/MRI) could also be facilitated.

This post is to commence June 2026 for 12 months.

In addition to the challenges of the role, we can offer you a commitment to teaching, education, research and audit.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

Please read attached Job Description and Person Specification.

Main duties of the job

Adults with CHD, in particular those referred from elsewhere for assessment for transplant or mechanical support, are amongst the most complex patients dealt with in the Cardiothoracic Directorate. The purpose of this post is to provide experienced middle grade cover for this patient group thereby enabling continuity of care for patients and appropriate supervision to junior doctors through senior ward presence. The post holder will receive training in advanced heart failure management in this complex group of patients.

For an informal discussion and further information regarding the opportunity and Directorate, please contact Dr Louise Coats on 01912137146 or via e‑mail at [e-mail] or Dr Jayant Kakarla on 0191 21 38952 or via email at [e-mail]

About us

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest, largest and most successful teaching NHS foundation trusts in the country, with around 16,000 staff and an annual income of £1 billion. We have a long history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, and innovation in medical research regionally, nationally and internationally.

We’re also proud to be the second largest provider of specialised services in the country. This means we support people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

Our staff oversee around 1.84 million patients ‘contacts’ each year, delivering high standards of healthcare.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people's race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under‑represented groups.

Job responsibilities

Clinical:

• Provide continuity of ward cover for complex ACHD patients on cardiology, cardiac surgery and intensive care wards
• Perform the daily ACHD cardiology ward round either independently, together with an ACHD Nurse Specialist or with a more junior doctor, with direct or indirect ACHD consultant supervision
• Join the multidisciplinary mechanical assist or transplant ICU ward round whenever ACHD patients have undergone these procedures.
• Perform the initial assessment of all ACHD patients referred by other UK centres for cardiac transplantation and/or mechanical assist device.
• Perform and report initial transthoracic echocardiogram on complex transplant referrals
• Perform and report peri‑operative transoesophageal echocardiogram on ACHD patients undergoing conventional surgical procedures with direct or indirect ACHD consultant supervision
• Attend and present cases at various relevant multidisciplinary meetings (Fontan/FALD, joint cardiac surgical meeting, ACHD electrophysiology meeting, heart failure and transplant meetings)
• Contribute to general ACHD and specialist outpatient clinics including ACHD heart failure, Fontan and combined obstetric‑cardiac clinics.
• Review and present Morbidity and Mortality cases at Clinical Governance
• ACCORDING TO INTEREST: Perform catheters, cross‑sectional imaging or electrophysiology procedures supervised and in a supported training role.

Administrative:

• Co‑ordinate the FALD MDT
• Attend and contribute to the weekly team/planning meeting
• Provide structured support to the programme of ACHD transplant and mechanical assist and act as central point of contact with other teams e.g. liver and lung teams or referring teams external to the Trust

Research:

• Participate in opportunities with clinical academics in the congenital heart disease research group (https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/congenitalhearts/) according to interest.

Teaching:

• Attend and contribute to weekly journal club and joint paediatric, ACHD and congenital surgical teaching
• Contribute to formal core curricular training programmes and bedside teaching for junior cardiology doctors and nurse practitioners
• Support and enable exposure to ACHD for medical students at various levels.

Flexibility:

In line with the Trust’s core value of placing patients at the heart of everything we do, we are developing our service provision to be responsive to the needs of our patients. To meet those needs some staff groups will be increasingly asked to work a more flexible work pattern so that they can offer services in the evening or weekend. As a result any offer of employment to a consultant post will be subject to you agreeing to work a new more flexible pattern or working in the future if required, including evening and weekend work.

Please read attached Job Description and Person Specification.

Person Specification

Education and Qualifications

• Primary Medical Qualification.
• Full GMC registration or eligibility to obtain this within 3 months.
• MRCP (or equivalent)

Clinical Skills and Knowledge

• Good history & examination skills
• Able to formulate a working diagnosis
• Able to order appropriate investigations
• Able to independently undertake Transthoracic Echocardiography
• Image interpretation relevant to practice
• Knows when to appropriately seek assistance from a senior colleague
• Transoesophageal Echocardiography
• Temporary Pacemaker Management

Maintaining Clinical Competence

• Written evidence of satisfactory training to date e.g. workplace assessments

Teaching

• Experience of teaching undergraduate medical students & Foundation Doctors
• Teaching Qualification

Clinical Governance, Audit and Research

• Experience or understanding of audit projects.
• Research Degree or Evidence of Formal Research Training

Communication, Relationships and Working with Colleagues

• Ability to communicate and liaise effectively with patients and other people within a team.
• Ability to work as a team with professional colleagues in all disciplines.

Personal Attributes

• Alignment with the Trust's Values.
• Flexible approach to service delivery and committed approach to development.
• A commitment to personal / unit CPD
• IT literate.
• Honesty, integrity, awareness of ethical dilemmas, respect for confidentiality
• Evidence of leadership skills.

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.

The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust