Senior Clinical Fellow in Functional Neurosurgery

North Bristol NHS Trust; Bristol; On-site; GBP 61,000 - 71,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a dedicated Senior Clinical Fellow in Functional Neurosurgery. This role focuses on deep brain stimulation for movement disorders, providing clinical training across the patient pathway. The successful candidate will join a progressive team at a leading hospital, known for its exceptional healthcare standards. With opportunities for research and collaboration with the University of Bristol, this position promises a dynamic environment where innovation meets compassionate care. If you are passionate about advancing your neurosurgical career and making a significant impact, this is the role for you.

Qualifications

• Completion of basic neurosurgical training.
• Experience with DBS surgery and patient assessment.

Responsibilities

• Attend clinics and MDT meetings for functional neurosurgery.
• Assess and support patients before, during, and after surgery.
• Document patient data and collaborate with the surgical team.

Skills

Neurosurgical Experience

Stereotactic Neurosurgery

Functional Disorders

Education

FRCS or equivalent

Higher Research Degree

Job description

Senior Clinical Fellow in Functional Neurosurgery

Senior Clinical Fellow

Main area Neurosurgery Grade Senior Clinical Fellow Contract Fixed term: 12 months (potentially extendable) Hours Full time - 40 hours per week (40 basic hours, plus additional hours as per work schedule) Job ref 339-NMSK6021-MJA

Site Southmead Hospital Town Bristol Salary £61,825 - £70,425 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 18/05/2025 23:59

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Job overview

We are delighted to announce an opening in our Deep brain stimulation (DBS) training programme from August 2025 and are looking for a committed neurosurgeon who has either completed or due to shortly complete their basic neurosurgical training to undertake a RCS England approved fellowship in functional neurosurgery with a particular focus on deep brain stimulation for movement disorders. North Bristol Trust acts as a tertiary referral centre for complex movement disorders and we regularly receive patients from the whole of southwest of England and south wales with additional complex referrals from across the UK. The post will involve clinical training in the whole of the patient pathway with movement disorders which will include assessment, surgical management and perioperative care of surgical patients. The DBS service has strong links with the University of Bristol and research opportunities will be available for the interested candidate.

The Functional Neurosurgery service has gone from strength to strength in this department, has a full team of core and extended members providing surgical interventions for movement disorders, pain and epilepsy.

Main duties of the job

a) To attend clinics and functional neurosurgery/movement disorder MDT meetings.

b) To assess patients prior to and following surgery and throughout follow-up using the core assessment protocol.

c) To assist in surgical preparation of DBS surgery including obtaining planning scans and planning the DBS trajectories.

d) To assess patients during the surgical procedure/medical treatment as well as offering them assurance and support

e) To programme deep brain stimulators (DBS) and educate patients, carers and staff regarding use of hand held programmers.

f) To advise on the evaluation and testing of new equipment relating to the treatment of movements disorders.

g) To advise patients, relatives and health care professionals regarding assessments, medical treatment, surgery, discharge advice and follow up care.

h) To advise patients and relatives regarding medication adjustment within patients’ group directions.

i) Liaise with the Movement Disorder Nurse Specialists within the Trust (where applicable).

j) To accurately document data, results and care given as agreed with the neurosurgeons, neurologists and researchers and collate up to date patient assessments.

k) Act as a specialist resource for the Trust and surrounding NHS Trusts/and health care providers for movement disorder conditions.

Working for our organisation

North Bristol NHS Trust is a progressive and ambitious teaching and research organisation, and a specialist regional centre for major trauma, neurosciences, plastics and burns, orthopaedics and renal services. With a turnover of £550m and 8,000 staff, our clinical teams have built a strong reputation for exceptional healthcare, personally delivered. Our acute services moved into the brand new, £430 million state of the art Brunel Building in May 2014 enabling us to work together to create the environment for exceptional healthcare. This 800 bed hospital at the Southmead site offers some patients single rooms with en-suite facilities, greatly improving privacy and dignity and helping to control the spread of infections but most importantly of all, enabling each patient to be treated as a person. At the heart of what we do is a caring and compassionate workforce. We treat some of the most difficult medical conditions, in an increasingly complex patient population. Our vision is to be the provider of choice for patients needing our specialist care. We want to deliver innovative services with excellent clinical outcomes in the most appropriate setting for our patients. We are committed to maintaining a culture of openness, transparency and candour in all we do and especially in the way we communicate with our patients and their families

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Neurosurgical Department undertakes approximately 3800 operative procedures per year, in a suite of 4 dedicated Neurosurgery theatres (3 x elective and 1 x emergency). Neurosurgery patients benefit from access to a fully functional Intraoperative MRI scanner in addition to navigation facilities in all theatres, Neuromate Robot, Intraoperative O-Arm for stereotactic localisations for DBS and Stereo EEG as well as routine Intraoperative Neurophysiology monitoring of cortical, subcortical white matter, spinal cord, cranial and peripheral nerves.

The team is fully supported by access to specialist Neurosciences services including Neuroradiology, Neuropathology, Neurophysiology, Neuropsychiatry, and therapy services, as well as a dedicated team of DBS Specialist nurses.

Neurosurgery benefits by working closely with a large and academically active Neurology and Neuro-Psychology department within the directorate. The ‘Brain Centre’ within Southmead Hospital is a specialist hub for Dementia, MS and functional disorders with several ongoing national clinical trials which are run in conjunction with The Institute of clinical Neuroscience (ICN) allied to the University of Bristol.

Consultants

Sub-specialist interest(s)

Skullbase

Vascular, Skull Base

Mr K Abhinav

Endoscopic skull base, Pituitary, Vascular

Vascular, Skull base

Mr Adam Williams

Endoscopic pituitary and pain

Mr Ven Iyer

Neuro-oncology & Spine

Mr G P Malcolm

Neuro-oncology & Spine

Neuro-oncology and Movement disorders

Complex Spine

Mr Nitin R Patel

Complex Spine

Mr C Wigfield

Complex Spine

Mr Mark Nowell

Complex Spine

Ms Naomi Slator

Complex Spine

Functional

Ms R Ashida

Mr N K Patel

Epilepsy Surgery

Epilepsy

Complex Hydrocephalus

Complex Hydrocephalus, Spinal dysraphism

There is a daily 8:00 a.m. combined clinical and radiology meeting; a weekly tumour MDT, fortnightly skullbase MDT, weekly epilepsy and movement disorders MDT, regular journal clubs and an academic teaching program. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to participate in departmental teaching and would be expected to participate in clinical governance and audit activities.. The out of hours commitment is a hybrid rota (consisting of 18 doctors) of four tiers of middle grade doctors depending on their experience in neurosurgery with the senior most tier providing support as non resident on-call. The emergency neurosurgical work will be from the same catchment population. There is a separate rota of complex spine surgery consultants (drawn from both neurosurgical and orthopaedic spinal units) who support the on-call registrar.

Person specification

Qualifications

• FRCS or equivalent
• Higher Research Degree
• NHS Experience

Experience

• Neurosurgical Experience
• Experience with stereotactic neurosurgery
• Demonstrate interest in functional disorders

If you apply for this vacancy and have not received a communication from North Bristol NHS Trust within three weeks of the closing date, please assume that on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.

Please note that North Bristol NHS Trust does not reimburse travel expenses relating to interview attendance.

If you feel you meet the requirements of the Disability Act / Two Ticks scheme and require further support/advice, please contact us on tel [phone].

North Bristol NHS Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

The successful applicant(s) will normally commence at the minimum of the scale unless they have previous NHS service at the same band. Progression through the scale is by annual increments.

At North Bristol Trust (NBT), we know diverse and inclusive environments lead to happier and healthier teams and improved patient care and outcomes. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in NBT’s workforce at Band 8a and above. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.

Please note that stringent pre-employment checks are undertaken on all successful applicants prior to commencement in post.

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 Reiko Ashida Job title Consultant Neurosurgeon Email address [e-mail] Additional information

Informal enquiries regarding the post may be made by contacting M iss Reiko Ashida via the department of neurosurgery offices:

Tel: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]