Highly Specialist Hand Therapist (PT or OT)

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS trust in London is seeking a Highly Specialist Hand Therapist to join their team. The role involves providing expert hand therapy, supervising staff, and leading service development in a multidisciplinary setting. Strong qualifications in occupational therapy and hand therapy are essential. The position offers an opportunity to contribute to a high-performing healthcare team committed to patient-centered care.

Qualifications

• Post-graduate experience in hand therapy at band 6 level or above.
• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Membership in professional associations.

Responsibilities

• Provide evidence-informed hand therapy for complex cases.
• Supervise and teach junior staff and students.
• Lead service development initiatives.

Skills

Clinical occupational therapy

Hand therapy

Supervision experience

Multi-disciplinary teamwork

Leadership

Education

Physiotherapy or occupational therapy diploma or degree

HCPC registration

Hand therapy accreditation

Job description

Highly Specialist Hand Therapist (PT or OT)

We are looking for an experienced and highly motivated hand therapist to join our service as our current team member is relocating overseas. You will support this innovative team with excellent clinical and team leadership skills that deliver high quality person-centred care and support the service leads to deliver department objectives and service development.

You will work as part of a medium-size adult hand therapy department that includes clinical hand therapists and rotational staff from bands 5-8, and clinical academic hand therapists from Queen Mary University of London. The service covers primary and secondary care referrals.

Your main role will be providing care for patients referred through secondary care trauma pathways, supporting the development of junior staff, participating in teaching programmes, leading service development and managing a clinical team. You may also be asked to cover aspects of the primary care referral pathway.

Main duties of the job

This role will be based in an outpatient adults hand therapy department treating acute, sub-acute and long-term pathologies. The post is 1.0WTE.

To provide person-centred and evidence-informed hand therapy for patients referred to multidisciplinary hand surgery and hand therapy service. The hand therapy department is linked to a major trauma centre and accepts referrals for adults who have hand or upper limb dysfunction due to injury or acquired conditions. Key referrers are plastics, trauma and orthopaedics, rheumatology, primary care, neurology and physiotherapy. This highly specialised service is provided mainly in an outpatient hospital setting, although some patients require treatment on the ward. We also offer group rehabilitation sessions in the gym.

The service adopts a holistic approach to assessment and treatment, with individualised goal-setting and treatment strategies that promote healing, reduce disability and support function. We also provide advice, education and injury prevention recommendations, and custom-made splints.

To supervise, appraise and advise therapy and support staff working in this area and to co-ordinate students allocated to the speciality, assisting the clinical educators as required. Supervise, educate and assess the performance of therapy students; this will be to a graduate level and may be to a post graduate level, with support from the clinical lead hand therapy team.

About us

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

Job responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.

We are dedicated to being an outstanding place to work and will work with you to get the best experience. We know flexible working is not a one size fits all and will mean something different to everyone. We are inclusive, so if you are interested in flexible working, please speak to the recruiting manager.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• oPhysiotherapy or occupational therapy diploma or degree from a recognised institution
• oHCPC registration
• oHand therapy accredication or other post-graduate hand therapy qualification.
• oRelevant PgCert, PgDip or MSc

Experience

• oClinical occupational therapy or physiotherapy post-graduate experience at band 6 level or above, including recent experience in hand therapy
• oSupervision experience of junior staff, support workers or students
• oEvidence of relevant continued professional development
• oExperience of working in a multi-disciplinary NHS team
• oExperience of leading service evaluation, quality improvement, audit or research.
• oMember of the British Association of Hand Therapists (BAHT)
• oSupervision training
• oLeadership training
• oInvolvement in hand therapy special interest groups
• oQuality improvement or other change management training
• oClinical research training

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.