Consultant Oncologist

NHS; Taunton; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job description

Here at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust we are seeking a Consultant colleague to join our ambitious team. We are a research-orientated department with a dedicated clinical trials team.

We provide Clinical and Medical Oncology inpatient and outpatient services, as well as radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer therapy to all common tumour sites. The Beacon Centre and St Margaret's Hospice provide cancer care to the population of Somerset of approximately 560,000. They have received a number of accolades for the high-quality care delivered, including CHKS ISO 9001 accreditation, Macmillan Quality Environment Mark score of 5 on all principles, Investors in People Gold and Customer Service Excellence A+++ award.

Our Yeovil Hospital site received a £15 million investment to develop part of the site and reduce waiting times. The first part of the development plans will see the main theatre have a significant refurbishment, including increasing space in the recovery area, and an extension to add a fifth theatre. This is coupled with the £5 million investment into an additional new Day Surgery Unit & modular Outpatient Unit.

Our Musgrove Park site will be opening a new Surgical Centre in Spring of 2025. We have a well-established programme of improvement work supporting the effective and efficient management of outpatient services (Somerset Transformation of Outpatient Care). This includes expanding opportunities for running outpatient clinics in a range of community hospitals across the county.

Main duties of the job

You will join a professional but friendly team of Clinical and Medical Oncologists, Specialist Doctors, Specialty Doctors, Clinical Fellows, Consultant Radiographers, Consultant Pharmacists, Chemotherapy Nurse Prescribers and Immunotherapy Advanced Nurse Practitioners. We work with a team of supportive and collaborative colleagues and enjoy training a group of motivated trainees from two deaneries.

You will provide clinical and medical oncology inpatient and outpatient services, as well as radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer therapy to all common tumour sites.

The role will incorporate the management of at least 2 clinical subsites, which may include breast, skin radiotherapy, radiation for haematological malignancies, gynae-oncology, colorectal, urology, and lung.

We run cancer clinics across the county with clinics at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and in Yeovil at St Margaret's Hospice. We have a weekly pre-clinic "huddles" for all sites, where each patient is discussed, to share learning and to give peer support.

Within radiotherapy, we hold regular steering group meetings to implement new developments and ensure we are up to date with published data & RCR guidelines.

We have an active Clinical Trials portfolio with trials open in both radiotherapy and systemic anti-cancer treatment.

Our Immunotherapy Service was one of the first to be set up in the UK and led to the development of a regional Immunotherapy Forum.

About us

At Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, we're committed to supporting our employees with a range of benefits designed to enhance your professional and personal life. We offer:

• Flexible working options to help you balance work and life
• NHS pension scheme for long-term financial security
• Generous annual leave allowance to recharge and relax
• A strong focus on career development to help you grow and achieve your potential

Additionally, you'll gain access to our Blue Light Card, unlocking exclusive discounts on shopping, dining, and leisure activities, as well as NHS-specific perks to support you both inside and outside of work.

We are proud to foster a diverse, skilled, and inclusive workforce, and we encourage applications from all backgrounds.

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached detailed Oncologist Job Description for more information relating to this job, including the full persons specification.

The successful applicant and Clinical Service Lead will agree a prospective Job Plan that sets out their main duties and responsibilities, including on call, a schedule for carrying out their Programmed Activities, managerial responsibilities, accountability arrangements, objectives and supporting resources.

Key benefits to highlight about this role:

• Pre-clinic huddles - these are embedded in our weekly job plans. Patients due to attend clinic or already seen are discussed within the team. This ensures the team remains abreast of developments and it also promotes peer support and joint decision making in a supported environment to ensure patients are offered the highest quality of care, including enrolment into available clinical trials. These huddles also help with scheduling of patients so that clinics are well managed.
• Adequate clinic administration time, in addition to general administration time - job plans include 50% of the time for direct clinical care (DCC) spent in clinic for clinic-associated administration. Therefore a 4-hour clinic attracts 2 hours of associated admin time in our job. We also offer 1 PA of general admin time and admin time for clinical trials proportionate to the number of trials you are Principal Investigator for.
• Experienced immunotherapy team with specific IO toxicity ward rounds, preassessment and IO toxicity follow up clinics.
• Nurse led acute oncology team, overseen by an experienced AOS oncologist.
• Supportive and inclusive team who value work-life balance.
• Established job planned radiotherapy peer review with no overlapping activities at this time.
• Team based structure to support annual leave.
• Access to regular restorative supportive supervision.
• Friendly medium sized hospital and trust which makes change management easier to navigate.
• Research active department with trials portfolio across all tumour sites, as well as local Chief Investigators.
• Great location and local schools - public and private.
• Relatively young department (approx. 10 years to next retirement) so agile and open to innovation and change.
• Travel time to non-base hospital.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Full registration with an active license to practice with the General Medical Council (GMC).
• Specialist registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) or be eligible for registration within 6 months of Interview.
• If an applicant is UK trained then they must also be a holder of a Certificate of Completion of training (CCT) in Medical Oncology or be within 6 months of CCT by date of interview.
• If an applicant is non-UK trained then they will be required to show evidence of equivalence of UK CCT.

Experience

• Willingness to use technology to improve standards of care and support to our patients.
• Ability to take full and independent responsibility for the clinical care of patients and be able to work in a multidisciplinary team.
• Evidence of a good standard of Literacy / English language skills.
• IT Literate.
• Attendance at management training and evidence of Learning.
• Awareness of the requirements of clinical governance and risk management with particular reference to oncology.
• Organisational and leadership skills.
• Ability to organise and prioritise workload.
• Experience and interest in teaching of staff both undergraduate and post graduate and from all disciplines.
• Knowledge of ethics, principles or practice of clinical research and proven participation in clinical research.
• Experience of e-prescribing.
• Experience in organising audit.
• GDP training and experience in recruiting patients to relevant trials.

Additional Criteria

• Ability to commute between places of work.
• Evidence of entitlement to live and work in the UK.
• Must be able to meet on call requirements.
• Driving license.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.