Consultant in Palliative Medicine

The Role

The Consultant will be part of the medical team, all of whom have a role in the clinical care of patients and families, the Hospice and Hospital education programme, governance requirements of the hospice service and development of the hospice and centre of excellence. The Hospice is currently trialling a new initiative whereby the traditional role and responsibilities of the Medical Director are shared amongst the Consultant body. The Hospice believes this best supports the involvement and development of the strategic and management contribution of our senior medical staff. An attractive salary package is on offer and appropriate relocation expenses will be provided.

Duties and Responsibilities

Clinical Role:

• To be provided across all of St Margaret of Scotland Hospice
• To participate in all aspects of specialist palliative care.
• To provide regular consultant support to the In Patient Unit and patient review as and when required. Also, to provide cross cover for the other Consultants for Annual leave.
• To establish and develop new external relationships with other specialists in both primary and secondary care, taking into account a clinically diverse range of patients.
• To provide clinical leadership and where appropriate for clinical teams within the hospice.
• To actively promote and develop evidence based clinical practice
• To be a core member and shared chair of the specialist palliative care Multi-Disciplinary Team at St Margaret of Scotland Hospice.
• To challenge and improve existing ways of working through collaboration with other specialities, multi-disciplinary teams and Heads of Services/Service Leads.
• In collaboration with service leads and the Medical team, explore and develop opportunities for innovative practice development and research.
• Participate in and support the effective clinical governance of the hospice.

Teaching:

• To support the planning, development and delivery of the established Hospice Education Strategy and undertake teaching when requested to do so. The Hospice is currently part of an Education Consortium with other West of Scotland Hospices, as well as delivering its own education programme, providing palliative care courses and training days to healthcare professionals.
• To actively support programme development and delivery of other relevant St Margaret of Scotland Hospice teaching programmes including advanced clinical practice, such as mentoring for non-medical prescribing, for non-medical staff
• To provide teaching to junior doctors and support the development of doctors in training posts at the Hospice.
• To provide teaching medical students, doctors and other healthcare workers on placements at the Hospice.
• To provide training of Specialist Registrars.
• Involvement in continuing medical education is an integral part of the advertised post.

The job plan for this post will be agreed with the Chief Executive at St Margaret of Scotland Hospice and will be reviewed when necessary.

ON-CALL ARRANGEMENTS: There will be a 1 in 4, 2nd on-call commitment. This is Category B prospective cover attracting a 3% availability supplement shared between the consultant and senior specialist doctor posts. This is for telephone advice to the 1st on-call doctor at the hospice and on call SPC CNS plus external advice if requested and beyond the competence of the 1st on call doctor/SPC CNS. Availability to attend is necessary if required when 2nd on to the Specialist Trainee as a condition of the training post.

Full secretarial support will be provided to all the Consultants as necessary. Office accommodation at St Margaret of Scotland Hospice is available for use by the Consultant. This will include full access to IT facilities, including a lap top computer with e-mail, intranet and internet facilities. General office support facilities will also be available to the Consultant. This appointment is subject to pre-employment health screening.