Theatre Team Manager - Scrub

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust in London is recruiting two experienced Nurses or ODPs to join the Theatre team at University Hospital Lewisham. You will lead the scrub team across multiple specialties, delivering high-quality perioperative care in a busy theatre environment.

The role offers permanent, full-time hours (37.5 per week) with day shifts, alongside a commitment to clinical leadership, staff development, and patient safety within a collaborative multidisciplinary team.

Qualifications

• Experience in operational/clinical management in an acute hospital setting.
• Ability to lead scrub teams and coordinate theatre lists.
• Commitment to infection prevention and patient safety standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the scrub team across multiple specialties.
• Ensure delivery of high-quality perioperative care.
• Coordinate workforce resources and operating lists.
• Support staff development and CPD.
• Maintain theatre safety and infection prevention standards.

Skills

Theatre scrub

Theatre leadership

Clinical governance

Staff development

Orthopaedic trauma

Education

Nursing degree or ODP qualification

Job description

Step into a place where exceptional care, patients, culture, and careers come together.

Explore our current vacancies and take your first step toward making a real difference.

Join us. Make a difference. Be part of Team LGT.

Main area Scrub/Theatre nursing Grade Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday, four days per week, 08:00-18:00) Job ref 197-R-LC8724

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the IC S in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is seeking 2 experienced, forward thinking and motivated Nurses or Operating Department Practitioners (ODP) to join our excellent Theatre team at University Hospital Lewisham.

This is an exciting opportunity to provide clinical and operational leadership within our busy Theatre Department. The postholders will lead and manage the scrub team across two or three of the following surgical specialties: General Surgery (including colorectal and bariatrics), Urology, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Paediatrics, ENT and Orthopaedics and Trauma.

The Theatre Department comprises of 11 operating theatres across two floors, delivering a wide range of elective and emergency surgical services. You will work closely with consultants, anaesthetists, theatre practitioners, floor coordinators, ward teams, and the wider multidisciplinary team to ensure the safe, effective, and efficient delivery of perioperative care.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide senior clinical leadership and operational management for the designated specialty scrub team. The role is responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-quality, patient-centred perioperative care, maintaining patient safety, coordinating workforce resources, and supporting the smooth running of operating lists.

As an expert practitioner, the postholder will maintain advanced specialist knowledge within their designated surgical specialties and act as a key resource for staff, patients, and the multidisciplinary team. They will promote clinical excellence, development, and contribute to the achievement of departmental, divisional, and organisational objectives.

The successful candidate will demonstrate strong team, clinical and operational leadership skills, sound clinical judgement, and a commitment to continuous quality improvement. They will foster a positive and inclusive working environment, support staff development, and champion the highest standards of patient care, safety, and professional practice.

The postholder is responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe, efficient, and high-quality perioperative care, effective workforce coordination, and the smooth running of operating lists.

Working autonomously and in collaboration with the multidisciplinary team, the postholder will coordinate and deliver patient care within agreed clinical protocols, professional standards, and current evidence-based practice.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

Clinical Leadership and Expertise

• Maintain advanced specialist knowledge of trauma and orthopaedic surgical procedures, instrumentation, implants, and consumables.
• Act as the clinical expert for T&O scrub practice, providing guidance, troubleshooting, and decision ‑ making support during complex cases.
• Ensure compliance with infection prevention, aseptic technique, and theatre safety standards.

Operational Management of Theatre Lists

• Oversee the daily coordination of trauma and elective orthopaedic theatre lists, ensuring appropriate staffing, equipment availability, and readiness of theatres.
• Allocate and adjust staffing to maintain safe skill mix, escalating risks where required.
• Work proactively to minimise avoidable cancellations, delays, and overruns by identifying issues early and implementing corrective actions.
• Liaise with surgeons, anaesthetists, floor coordinators, and schedulers to maintain efficient patient flow.

Workforce Leadership and Staff Development

• Provide day ‑ to ‑ day leadership for scrub practitioners, including supervision, mentoring, and clinical support.
• Lead on performance management, sickness management, appraisals, and professional development plans.
• Support staff in achieving competencies, extended roles, and specialist orthopaedic skills.
• Promote a positive, inclusive, and high ‑ performing team culture.

Equipment, Consumables, and Resource Management

• Ensure correct selection, availability, and maintenance of orthopaedic instruments, implants, and consumables.
• Work closely with equipment officers and suppliers to resolve issues, manage stock levels, and support procurement decisions.
• Contribute to cost ‑ effective use of resources and reduction of waste.

Governance, Quality, and Safety

• Lead or support investigations into incidents, near misses, and complaints, ensuring timely reporting, and implementation of corrective actions.
• Monitor compliance with safety checklists, policies, and regulatory standards.
• Participate in audits, quality improvement initiatives, and service development projects.
• Work closely with other Band 7 theatre managers, the Matron, floor coordinators, and the wider perioperative leadership team to ensure consistent standards and coordinated service delivery.
• Build strong relationships with orthopaedic consultants, anaesthetic teams, ward staff, and operational managers.
• Contribute to strategic planning for trauma and orthopaedic services, including pathway redesign and workforce development.

Additional Expectations

• Participate in the senior leadership rota and undertake on call and cross site working in accordance to Trust service requirements.
• Support change management, service redesign, and improvement projects aligned with organisational priorities.
• Maintain professional registration and engage in ongoing CPD relevant to trauma and orthopaedics.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent level of experience Possession of relevant education/teaching certification
• Possession of speciality post registration certificate or equivalent
• Knowledge of quality standards

Experience

• Evidence of (minimum two years)experience within operational / Clinical management in an acute hospital setting in a senior nurse/ODP role
• Evidence of experience within the relevant speciality / service
• Effective leadership skills and an understanding of leadership and change management practice
• Evidence of having developed team working skills and implemented team working practices - this includes the ability to enthuse, motivate and involve all team members
• Track record of effectively handling competing priorities, meeting challenging deadlines and delivering under pressure.
• Experience of dealing with financial systems i.e. budgetary control, Clinical Governance, Health and Safety and Human resources.
• Successful track record in conflict resolution and performance management
• Leading a team
• Knowledge/understanding of quality improvement methodology

Knowledge

• Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Computer Skills
• Ability to conduct own project successfully
• Change management

personal Qualities

• Strong, inclusive and effective leadership style
• Creative, lateral thinker
• Open, participative, dynamic and supportive leadership with a flexible management style
• Flexible and positive approach to workDetermined and resilient
• Committed to collaborative working

We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note: Information provided during recruitment and pre‑employment checks must be accurate. Misrepresentation may be investigated as fraud and could lead to withdrawal from the process, professional sanctions, or criminal action.

Please note: that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.

Use of AI in recruitment: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the initial review of applications against the essential criteria for this role. Where AI is used, it will support rather than replace human decision-making, and applications will remain subject to appropriate human review.

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.

Application numbers

To ensure fairness and manageable shortlisting processes, some vacancies may have an application cap. This means the vacancy will close once a set number of applications have been received even if this happens before the advertised closing date.

We recommend applying as early as possible to avoid missing out. All applications received before the cap is reached will be considered equally and assessed against the person specification.

Name Rebeccah Beck Job title Senior Matron - Theatres and Day Care Unit Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 07891126244 Additional information

Office Tel: [phone] (ext, 48311)