Consultant in Palliative Care

Job responsibilities

The role entails but is not limited to:

Clinical Care

The post holder will lead the planning, development and delivery of palliative medical care to patients by:

Providing expert medical management for patients with complex palliative care needs, both in the hospice and community settings.

Providing continuity of medical care on the inpatient unit and in the community and being responsible with the medical team for the day-to-day management of patients admitted to the IPU.

Leading weekly multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings, contributing to holistic patient management plans.

• Performing a full holistic assessment of patients and providing on-going medical review for existing patients.
• Prescribing appropriately in line with hospice and the West Midlands Palliative Care Physicians Guidelines for Symptom Control, maintaining accurate and legible drug charts. Completing the requisitions for pharmaceutical and other supplies when necessary.

Offering clinical leadership and support to junior medical staff, medical trainees. nursing teams, and allied health professionals.

Leading ward rounds, outpatient clinics, and home visits as required.

Supporting effective symptom control, advance care planning, and end-of-life care discussions

Participating in the Hospice weekend medical rota

Leadership & Management

Lead and manage the Medical Team at St Giles Hospice ensuring all clinical, medical needs of the teams are met

Manage the day-to-day requirements of the medical team through relevant HR process and practice, ensuring one-to-ones, team meetings, appraisals and any other relevant HR requirements are carried out in line with St Giles policy

Support the Director of Clinical Services by leading on the development, maintenance, and delivery of a comprehensive strategy for quality which considers patient safety, risk management, clinical effectiveness, and patient experience.

Provide highly visible accessible leadership, advice and support on issues relating to safe and compassionate medical care, ensuring the provision of evidence-based practice.

Work with the senior management team and the senior clinical team, ensuring that services are developed around patient needs, that they are accessible and seamless.

Take an active role in the Hospices Senior Leadership team, representing medical services and working collaboratively with other hospice teams, and gain a full understanding of the complexity of the organisation.

To be responsible for professional standards of the medical team and medical services at St Giles Hospice

Maintain awareness of up-to-date professional and clinical practice issues and ensure that appropriate national policy is reflected in practice.

Lead and contribute to the annual integrated governance work programme and monitoring framework in line with the Hospice clinical strategy, assurance framework, risk register and Quality Account priorities as well as all Care Quality Commission aspects of business.

Clinical Service Development and Governance

The post holder will be professionally responsible for helping to develop clinical services and robust organisational clinical governance practices through

Contributing to the development, implementation, and evaluation of clinical guidelines and protocols.

Engage in quality improvement initiatives to enhance patient care and service efficiency.

Participate in clinical governance activities, including audits, incident reviews, and risk assessments

Play and active part in the organisations Senior Leadership Team, contributing to the strategic direction of the organisation.

• Clinical audits.
• Reviewing and making recommendations on the implementation of national guidelines e.g. NICE.
• Keeping up to date with medical developments, new drugs, treatments and medications, relating to palliative care and sharing learning.

Education and Training

The post holder will be the lead clinician responsible for the development of the medical team including ANPs, Speciality and Specialty Doctors and medical and GP trainees by

Delivering training and mentorship for medical trainees, nursing staff, and other professionals in palliative care principles and practice.

Actively contribute to local and regional teaching programmes in collaboration with academic institutions.

Contributing to the internal teaching programme for members of the multi-disciplinary team and, if appropriate, externally as part of the Hospices commitment to educating other clinical teams about end-of-life care.

Research and Innovation

Working collaboratively with the Hospices Professor in End-of-Life Care to continually assess clinical practice and participate in research studies that contribute to our clinical excellence

Promote and participate in research initiatives related to palliative care, supporting evidence-based practice.

Foster collaboration with academic partners to enhance the hospices reputation as a centre of excellence.

Liaison and Advocacy

Work cross organisationally with key internal stakeholders to represent the medical team and fully understand the complexity of the organisation from clinical delivery through to income generation

Actively encourage and lead with a one team approach

Build strong working relationships with local GPs, hospital teams, and community services to ensure seamless care pathways.

Represent the hospice at regional and national forums, advocating for palliative care excellence.

General

The successful candidate will, on initial appointment and thereafter, be required to inform the Hospice of any regular commitments in respect of private professional services or fee-paying services. There will be a similar requirement in respect of additional NHS responsibilities or other external duties.

The post holder must be fully registered with the General Medical Council. It is essential to maintain appropriate membership of a recognised medical defence organisation. Employees at the Hospice do not benefit from NHS indemnity .

Just so you know:

We may review applications before the application review date, however, if you apply after the application review date, your application may not be considered. We will accept applications until we have successfully filled the role, this may be earlier than the closing date.

If you have not heard within 14 days of the application close date, then please consider that your application has been unsuccessful at this time.

As part of your application your data will be managed in line with St Giles Hospice Privacy Policy and kept for 6 months. If you would like to see this in full, please visit https://www.stgileshospice.com/privacy-policy/

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Extensive experience in managing patients with advanced, life-limiting illnesses
• ...