Locum Consultant - Resident - Neonatal Unit

Bedfordshire Hospitals; Luton; Híbrido; GBP 114.000 - 151.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust invites applications for a full-time Locum Consultant in Neonatal Medicine at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. The post is a fixed-term 6‑month contract with potential extension, offering 10 sessions per week on a rolling rota and immediate availability.

The Neonatal Unit serves a busy tertiary service with extensive NICU activity. The successful candidate will join a 13.75 WTE consultant team, contribute to on-site attendance, teaching and

Responsabilidades

• Maintain the highest clinical standards in the management of neonatal patients born or transferred to the unit.
• Share management of admissions to the NICU and Transitional Care with colleagues.
• Provide outpatient follow-up for neonatal patients up to age 2 or transfer to another specialty when appropriate.
• Contribute to resident Neonatal consultant on-call rotas and out-of-hours cover.
• Participate in teaching, CPD and clinical governance activities.

Descripción del empleo

Locum Consultant - Resident - Neonatal Unit

NHS Medical & Dental: Locum Consultant

Main area Neonatal Grade NHS Medical & Dental: Locum Consultant Contract Fixed term: 6 months (With possibility to extend) Hours Full time - 10 sessions per week (6 week rolling rota) Job ref 418-M-PD-478

Site Luton and Dunstable Hospital Town Luton Salary £113,565 - £150,569 pa Salary period Yearly Closing 05/11/2026 23:59

Job overview

Applications are invited for a full-time (10 PA) locum Consultant in Neonatal Medicine at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. Since April 2020 we have been part of the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with 2 sites, one in Bedford which has a Special Care Unit and the Luton and Dunstable site which has a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The post is based entirely at the Luton and Dunstable site and is available immediately for period of 6 months initially. This is to cover a period of leave. The successful applicant will join an enthusiastic, innovative and friendly team of Neonatal consultants delivering family centred, safe and high quality clinical services leading to excellent outcomes in a busy tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital is the Lead unit for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and one of 3 tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the East of England Neonatal Operational Delivery Network accepting in-utero and ex-utero transfers from a wide geographical area. We have close links with the rest of the Network including the other two NICU’s. We currently have 19 ITU/HDU cots and a total of 37 cots. Our new state of the art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit opened in November 2025 providing modern, purpose built and family friendly facilities for the provision of intensive, high dependency and special care alongside a transitional care unit.

Main duties of the job

We have a team of 13.75 WTE Consultants providing resident and non-resident out of hours cover. You will join the consultant team rotating through a rolling rota of attending weeks covering the ICU or Delivery Suite/Postnatal wards and performing regular Neonatal out-patient clinics. The candidate will join colleagues in delivering an average of 22 hours a day of consultant presence on the NICU by contributing to on-site out of hours cover through a mixture of long day shifts and resident nights. The post does not include any non-resident on-call duties (this may be subject to change). When resident on site in the evening, or overnight this is in addition to a minimum of two ST4+ doctor (tier 2 cover) and one or two ST1-3 doctor (tier 1 cover), with additional non-resident on-call support for periods of high activity. Through these innovative working patterns the Neonatal Unit has achieved a consistently high number of hours per day of consultant presence to support doctors in training and deliver high quality, safe neonatal care.

We are a friendly, dynamic and supportive multidisciplinary team and are looking for an appointee who can work with us to maintain this ethos whilst helping us to expand and further improve the care of the Newborn in Beds and Herts. We contribute to multicentre clinical trials and are keen to continue to expand our portfolio of clinical trials and to neonatal research therefore applicants with previous research experience are encouraged to apply.

Working for our organisation

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology.

Our Values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key tasks:

Maintenance of the highest clinical standards in the management of all neonatal patients born or transferred into the hospital.

To share, with colleagues in the Neonatal Department the management of neonatal patients requiring admission to Neonatal Intensive Care or Transitional Care alongside oversight of postnatal babies requiring medical management or senior review.

To share in the provision of outpatient follow-up of any neonatal patient who requires ongoing management in the community up until the age of 2 years or until care is formally transferred to another specialty such as paediatrics.

To share with consultant colleagues in providing the resident Neonatal consultant out-of-hours rota.

Teaching and training of intermediate grade and, junior medical staff, nursing staff and medical students.

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

To have responsibility for and actively participate in continuing professional development (CPD).

In addition to the fixed clinical sessions necessary to provide continuous cover in the clinical area, flexible sessions that include time for teaching, administration, management and clinical governance will be discussed and agreed.

A job plan will be agreed by the Clinical Director for Neonatal Medicine in the first instance and approved by the Job Planning Advisory Reference Group (JPARG) on behalf of the Chief Executive. This plan will be reviewed annually. The annual review will be used to check that the record of fixed and flexible sessions is accurate and compliant with the EWTD; covers acute commitments and is compatible with the agreed template for the speciality and that any problems arising can be resolved. This also provides an opportunity for constructive debate about the individual’s personal development plan including CPD and any evolving special interests which the appointee may wish to pursue.

Schedule 10 fee Paying Services (as per Terms and Conditions – Consultants (England