Consultant Stroke Medicine in Leinster Region - Republic of Ireland on a fixed term / permanent basis; working for our client via Workplace Doctors

*** Must have IMC (Specialist Division) Registration (Irish Medical Council) - Essential
*** Location: Republic of Ireland - Leinster Region (Louth, Meath, Longford, Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Carlow,   Kilkenny, Wexford, Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare)
***Speciality: Stroke Medicine
*** Pay rate: €217,235 to €261,051 Euro’s (dependent on experience) basic salary (allowances paid extra)
*** Role: Consultant (6+ years post graduate experience)
*** Duration:12 months FREE Visa & Work Permit Offered
*** Start date: ASAP 
***IELTS Score of 7.0 Overall (minimum) – Essential (overseas doctors only)

***Exact location details provided upon application

Irish Teaching Hospitals and Medical Universities receive great international acclaim & recognition throughout the world, doctors with experience and training in Ireland typically enjoy great success in terms of professional career development & job satisfaction.

Overview

Our clients HSE Hospital is one of the biggest acute hospitals in the Leinster area, providing general acute services to around 250,000 people living in Leinster and surrounding areas, and some specialist services to the population beyond that.  The hospital employs 2,500 people and have an annual turnover of 230million euro’s.

The hospital has a strong track record in the provision of safe and high quality care.  Among its many excellent services are an outstanding trauma and orthopaedics unit, a pioneering emergency assessment unit, a fully accredited gynae-oncology unit, level 2 neonatal care, and nationally recognised expertise in radiotherapy, diabetes and ENT. This hospital’s facilities include excellent facilities for A&E, critical care and day surgery. 

The hospital also has particular strengths in research and education, with strong links to the Universities in the local and surrounding areas.

The Department

This is a very exciting time to join Stroke Services at the Hospital. The hospital is the second busiest stroke service in the Leinster Region, currently treating approximately 600 confirmed cases of acute stroke and 400 TIA patients each year.

The service is consistently achieving the targets on all commissioned metrics for TIA and acute stroke including submission of stroke and stroke mimic data to SSNAP. Our current SSNAP score is a B, and we are currently the best in the region.

The hospital manage all our mimic cases through to discharge and refer to alternative treatment pathways where appropriate.

A colleague’s planned retirement allows the hospital to recruit to a whole time equivalent Stroke Physician post.

Service Goals over the next 18 months:

• Determine and implement a regional thrombectomy pathway.

• Continue to establish a sustainable pattern of providing consultant led elective and non-elective stroke specialist work across seven days at the Hospital.

• Develop links with cardiology to enable high quality and financially responsible methods of detecting arrhythmias potentiating thrombo-embolic strokes.

• Training and supporting Band 5 & 6 nurses to enable robust stroke specialist cover 24/7 on site at the Hospital. This would include leading a project to achieve safe & consistent door to needle times of less than 60 minutes.

• Six Band 6 stroke nurse appointments with increased nursing input in TIA clinic

• Training paramedics and multidisciplinary teams to increase quality and safety of our stroke care

• Establish a tertiary complex stroke and neuro-rehabilitation inpatient service for the local area- overflow

• Access to vascular intervention for symptomatic carotid disease within one week.

Service Infrastructure:

• A four- bedded fully monitored HASU with telemetry.

• 21 bed acute stroke unit.

• Daily consultant-led multidisciplinary HASU ward rounds

• Seven day high risk and five day low risk TIA service. This allows access to same day carotid and brain imaging therefore allowing the initiation of acute medical treatment.

• High risk TIA service on weekends and bank holidays with similar diagnostic and therapeutic support

• 24/7 thrombolysis service supported by a regional telemedicine service since November 2010.

The Hospital has an emergency department that was rated outstanding in our recent national audit visit during January. The department provides high class emergency inpatient and outpatient specialty care alongside the specialties of Care of the Elderly, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Respiratory Medicine and Cardiology, Renal Medicine, Neurology and Dermatology.

Clinical Duties (guideline only)

This is a substantive post designed to complete the consultant team delivering comprehensive diagnostic, acute and rehabilitation stroke and TIA services. The three existing Stroke Physicians have relinquished their responsibilities to Geriatric Medicine and General Medicine and devote their clinical time to a revamped Stroke and TIA service. This further appointment will enable us to make the step change in quality of care required by the Leinster and Stroke Review particularly through seven day consultant input for the Stroke and TIA service and supporting rehabilitation in the community via Early Supportive Discharge and bed - based rehabilitation.

Clinical:

The components of the service which the successful applicant will help to provide are:

• Rapid Assessment Clinic for TIA/minor stroke patients is held five days a week where 20 - 25 suspected new stroke/TIA patients are seen per week. There is also a service for high risk TIA patients at weekends and bank holidays currently provided by trained middle grade doctors. The seven day a week service includes same day CT or MRI scan and Carotid Doppler. The hospital is currently achieving their performance targets for high risk and low risk patients.

• Since June 2007 a 9 to 5 stroke thrombolysis service has been provided in liaison with colleagues in Emergency Department and this was extended to 24/7 thrombolysis service supported by on call regional telemedicine rota in November 2010.

• Currently, from Monday to Friday there is 9.30 am consultant – led multidisciplinary ward round for all new suspected stroke/TIA admissions.

• There is daily review of all other patients on Stroke Unit

• Multidisciplinary rehabilitation of stroke patients on the stroke ward including meetings with relatives.

• Weekly outpatient clinics providing for new referrals and medical follow up for recently discharged stroke patients and other patients.

• Nurse-led Stroke follow up clinic which is medically supported (stroke physician available for advice in clinic and checks letters).

• Strong links with diagnostic imaging, vascular surgery, cardiology and neurology.

• Ongoing educational programme for all disciplines within the department and lectures to GPs and other interested groups.

The appointee will take on Consultant medical duties for inpatients and outpatients within a 10 PA job plan which is open to negotiation.

The appointee will have responsibility for Stroke and TIA Services on the secondary Hospital site and community stroke services working in partnership with two Consultant colleagues.

Supporting medical staff within Stroke Service:

• Currently the post is supported by a Geriatric Medicine Specialist Registrar, a stroke registrar grade post, one Core Trainee, one house officer and one senior house officer in the TIA service.

Ward facilities:

A dedicated acute stroke ward (25 beds), with regional network funded full monitoring facilities in the four bed Ward.

Standard Duties and responsibilities

a) To participate in development of and undertake all duties and functions pertinent to the Consultant’s area of competence, as set out within the Clinical Directorate Service Plan  and in line with policies as specified by the Employer.

b) To ensure that duties and functions are undertaken in a manner that minimises delays for patients and possible disruption of services.

c) To work within the framework of the hospital / agency’s service plan and/or levels of service (volume, types etc.) as determined by the Employer. Service planning for individual clinical services will be progressed through the Clinical Directorate structure or other arrangements as apply.

d) To co-operate with the expeditious implementation of the Disciplinary Procedure 

e) To formally review the execution of the Clinical Directorate Service Plan with the Clinical Director / Employer periodically. The Clinical Directorate Service Plan shall be reviewed periodically at the request of the Consultant or Clinical Director / Employer. The Consultant may initially seek internal review of the determinations of the Clinical Director regarding the Service Plan.

f) To participate in the development and operation of the Clinical Directorate structure and in such management or representative structures as are in place or being developed. The Consultant shall receive training and support to enable him/her to participate fully in such structures.

g) To provide, as appropriate, consultation in the Consultant’s area of designated expertise in respect of patients of other Consultants at their request.

h) To ensure in consultation with the Clinical Director that appropriate medical cover is available at all times having due regard to the implementation of the European Working Time Directive as it relates to doctors in training.

i) To supervise and be responsible for diagnosis, treatment and care provided by non-Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs) treating patients under the Consultant’s care.

j) To participate as a right and obligation in selection processes for non-Consultant Hospital Doctors and other staff as appropriate. The Employer will provide training as required. The Employer shall ensure that a Consultant representative of the relevant specialty / sub-specialty is involved in the selection process. 

k) To participate in clinical audit and proactive risk management and facilitate production of all data/information required for same in accordance with regulatory, statutory and corporate policies and procedures.

l) To participate in and facilitate production of all data/information required to validate delivery of duties and functions and inform planning and management of service delivery

Teaching Commitments

The Department prides itself on a high standard of teaching for medical trainees at all levels and a high pass rate in the MRCP examinations. Involvement in the postgraduate teaching programme is essential. The hospital has a commitment to contribute sessions to the ED department, local GPs, medical student teaching, CT and ST training as well as our own bimonthly multi-disciplinary stroke teaching.

Job Plan

A formal job plan will be agreed between the appointee, the Operational Medical Director and Lead Stroke Medicine Consultant, on behalf of the Trust’s Medical Director, based on the provisional timetable. This will be signed by the Chief Executive and will be effective from the commencement date of the appointment.

It will be reviewed at 3 months & thereafter annually or at any time, but no less than 3 months after a previous review, as requested by the appointee, Operational Medical Director or Clinical Lead & adjusted accordingly to the agreement of both parties.

Sample Timetable Subject to Job Planning – A, B, C (flexible working)

(10 PA = 8.5 DCC + 1.5 SPA)

• Care of Ward patients and acute stroke calls

• Care of ASU patients

• TIA clinics Monday to Friday

• Outpatients clinics and community sessions with Early Supportive Discharge and bed-based community rehabilitation

• Weekend work will including HASU ward round, TIA clinic and ward reviews

• Days off in lieu will follow a weekends or bank holidays on duty

The successful applicant will be expected to join a rota (one in four with prospective cover) to provide weekend and bank holiday Stroke Unit ward rounds and assessment of high risk TIA referrals.

There is also the offer to join the out of hours regional telemedicine rota for stroke thrombolysis. This is a separate contractual obligation and remunerated separately.

Requirements

This post is open to doctors who hold Registration as a Specialist in the Specialist Division of the Registrar of Medical Practitioners maintained by the Medical Council in Ireland in the specialty of Clinical and Stroke Medicine.

Office Accommodation

Office accommodation will be provided for the appointee with secretarial support.

Management Responsibility

All Consultants are required to attend the monthly Directorate Meetings. Post holders will be expected to share in administrative duties allocated by mutual agreement within the Directorate. As part of the Consultant Team, the consultant  will offer mentoring support and lead the existing clinical team through; joint clinics, one-to-one support, individual case management and complex cases, identifying development needs and suggesting CPD (Continuous Professional Development) opportunities and responding to clinical enquiries via e-mail and telephone.

If you are interested in working in growing your career and increasing your income, then talk to our healthcare team today. If you can fill the above requirements, we will give you the following benefits:

*** Visa & Work Permit for FREE!

*** Guidance, Training & Career Development

*** Dedicated & Supportive team- Consultant available when you need.

*** Excellent Basic Pay, Overtime paid for extra hours
***Assistance provided with relocation

You are able to also apply online (see below) We look forward to helping you progress your career and find you the ideal position.

Doctors Guide to working in the Republic of Ireland – Click here

Call us today on +44 (0) 1234 889213 to discuss this vacancy or email your CV to info@workplacedoctors.co.uk  or apply online today (see below).

***Please note due to the high number of applications, we do answer every application in turn.***