Job Advert
NHS TAYSIDE
Consultant post Dundee HSCP
MEDICINE FOR THE ELDERLY
Applications are invited for an MFE Consultant post to join the innovative Medicine for the Elderly Team in Dundee. The orthogeriatric service is seen as an integral component to the NHS Tayside remobilisation plan and therefore the exciting opportunity has arisen to appoint a lead orthogeriatric consultant to head up this reform and join an already enthused team.
Dundee has a diverse and integrated geriatric model across acute hospital services to our communities. The acute component includes an Acute Frailty Team and a 24 bedded Acute Medicine for the Elderly Unit (AME Unit) as a separate ward in the Medical Admission Unit of Ninewells hospital, and a 44 bedded geriatric assessment and rehabilitation unit in Ninewells Hospital. Out with the acute hospital we have flourishing community care models with community hospitals and Royal Victoria Hospital the centre for step-down rehabilitation in Dundee. We have a strong community presence and support Enhanced Community Support (ECS) with regular GP practise-based MDT meetings supported by designated locality MFE consultants aligned to each GP practice. In addition to this we also have Dundee Enhanced Community Support Acute Team (DECSA) which is essentially a form of hospital at home model which supports our ambitions to manage as many frail people in their own home, if safe to do so.
At the heart of our model is this locality working where the team concentrate on the care of older people in one of the four specific Dundee localities or GP clusters. This delivers population continuity of care across in-patient and the community so as an MFE consultant you are enabled to manage the care of the same frail person in the community, at outpatients and while an in-patient throughout an older person’s life. It is a very holistic and rewarding model to work in.
We are supported by a great team of career grade doctors, as well as 9 MFE Advanced Nurse Practitioners and two nurse consultants. This level of support allows each consultant to function at the senior level we aspire to and lead in care delivery to our respective populations, without necessarily having to individually deliver all the vast amount of care needed.
The Medicine for the Elderly team has a strong senior speciality doctor/ consultant group with no unfilled posts. The Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Tayside have an ambitious strategy for Older People which demonstrates commitment to this population. Rewardingly, much of the leadership in TAYSIDE is clinically co-led, which genuinely allows a clinical voice and input into care models. The Medicine for the Elderly team are at the heart of this leadership model and so have a VERY strong voice allowing continuous service progression across the whole system to the benefit of older people in Tayside.
Innovation and continuous service improvement is the norm in Tayside, hence our ambitious strategy around frailty in our surgical division. Recently a surgical Acute Frailty Team has been introduced to support emergency and elective surgery and stage two of our plan is to enhance our orthogeriatric model. The team currently have two advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs), two clinical fellows, and a senior speciality doctor. With the introduction of this new consultant post we plan to improve our pre and post- operative orthogeriatric unscheduled care model supported by the addition of a designated medicine for the elderly bed base on the orthopaedic floor, as well as priority pathways for older people back into our local communities.
In addition, as part of our remobilisation plan there is significant focus in Tayside on planned/elective care and developing this orthogeriatric arm of service is part of the vision.
The consultant post will be tailored to an applicant’s needs, and in addition to orthogeriatrics, any other areas of interest will be catered for. There is a strong culture of service improvement in Tayside and so successful post holder would have ample non-clinical time in job plan to support delivering innovative change, with minimum of 1 PA for quality improvement available. Final job plan would be agreed with successful candidate but indicative job plan would 7.5 to 8 PA DCC: 2.5 to 2 PA non DCC.
Candidates can work fulltime or part time. Weekend and evening working is available, as is out of hours. These can be optional. We are truly flexible.
For informal enquiries please contact: Dr Douglas Lowdon, Tayside Medicine for the Elderly Clinical Lead, 01382 660111, Bleep 6214 or 07989 609379 or email; douglas.lowdon@nhs.scot
NHS Tayside is an equal opportunities employer and positive about disabled people
Closing Date for Applications is: 11 August 2021
Interviews will be held on: anticipated interview date between 16 - 21 August 2021