Integrated Community Physician & Clinical Lead - Virtual Wards

We are looking for a doctor to join our Virtual Ward team in Morecambe Bay. You will join our wonderful team of community nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, advanced clinical practitioners and nurse consultants to provide virtual ward care across Morecambe Bay.

Clinical Leadership

As Clinical Lead you will be key to developing and delivering our Virtual Ward here in Morecambe Bay.

The Clinical Lead will have responsibilities as described in the Job Description and will have direct reports from any other physicians working in the service. You will work closely with the clinical staff (physicians, Nurse Consultants and ACPs) to establish robust clinical pathways and ensure safe practice around prescribing and clinical assessment.

We have an enthusiastic and highly competent group of clinical staff in our Virtual Ward team and we are ambitious for where the service can go; our Clinical Lead will be key to this.

Virtual Ward Physicians will be responsible for senior clinical oversight and decision making as well as leading the daily MDT discussions. At the request of ACPs, home visits may be required and should be expected.

Our Virtual Ward has developed a very capable and comprehensive service which we are proud of. We offer IV therapy to our patients and work closely with Respiratory and Frailty teams in the acute hospital.

Our senior decision makers (Physicians and Nurse Consultants) will also play a key role in reviewing patients in hospital who may be suitable for virtual ward-based care and proactively supporting safe, early discharge to their home.

About us

We operate from three main hospitals: Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI), and Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) in Kendal, as well as a number of community healthcare premises including Millom Hospital and GP Practice, Queen Victoria Hospital in Morecambe, and Ulverston Community Health Centre.

FGH and the RLI have a range of General Hospital services, with full Emergency Departments, Critical/Coronary Care units and various Consultant-led services.

WGH provides a range of General Hospital services, together with an Urgent Treatment Centre, that can help with a range of non-life threatening conditions such as broken bones and minor illnesses.

All three main hospitals provide a range of planned care including outpatients, diagnostics, therapies, daycase and inpatient surgery. In addition, a range of local outreach services and diagnostics are provided from community facilities across Morecambe Bay.

Job description

Our Virtual ward team operates seven days a week from 8am to 8pm. As a virtual ward clinician, you will be expected to be on site, with the ability to travel across Morecambe Bay Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. You will also provide on-call advice over the weekend (9am to 5pm) to our ACP team on a 1:5 rota; this will primarily be remote advice but may, at the request of the ACP and depending on clinical urgency, involve home visits. We do not expect this to happen frequently and hasn't been required so far in over 2 years of experience of the virtual ward.

We invite applications from Consultants, GPs, or experienced clinicians who are able to provide independent, senior decision making within the multi-disciplinary team. The programme is looking at adult patients only, so we are looking for candidates with experience managing general medicine and frailty who understand and enjoy the complexities of care in the community setting.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• MRCGP, MRCP or equivalent
• GMC Registration
• CCT in General Practice, General Medicine or other relevant specialty

Experience

• Previous experience managing undifferentiated acute medical illness in community or acute settings as a senior, independent clinician
• Experience of supervision of junior medical colleagues and/or Advanced Clinical Practitioners
• Effective experience in a leadership role

• Experience working as part of a multidisciplinary team in the community
• Previous experience as Clinical Lead or GP Principal
• Experience in dealing with doctors in difficulty and managing disciplinary investigations
• Experience in managing budgets and developing QIPP schemes

Skills

• Competence interpreting clinical investigation results such as blood results, ECGs and medical imaging
• Ability to holistically manage adult patients presenting with acute and chronic health issues in a community setting
• Ability to determine patient-centred practical management plans which optimise acute and chronic health conditions in concert with the wider MDT.
• Maintain up to date appraisal and revalidation.

Personal

• Has access to own car and ability to drive across Morecambe Bay

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

331-X1711124