Locum Consultant Physician – Immunology and Allergy

Locum Consultant Physician – Immunology and Allergy

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an enthusiastic specialist to join our dynamic and nationally renowned Immunology and Allergy team on a 12 months fixed-term basis.

The successful candidate will be part of the QPIDS and IQAS accredited team providing outpatient allergy and immunology services and supporting the Immunology laboratory service. The post holder will work across the 4 hospital sites: Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Good Hope Hospital, and Solihull Hospital. They may also be required to support additional hospitals regionally.

We offer:

1. A supportive and forward-thinking Immunology and Allergy Department.
2. Involvement in specialist services.
3. Strong links with academic research and opportunities to develop your special interests.
4. A flexible, annualised job plan with work-life balance options.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will participate with colleagues in the provision of an outpatient immunology and allergy service, clinical aspects of the laboratory service, including provision of advice and guidance for colleagues in clinical and laboratory aspects of the specialty.

The post attracts 10 PAs, including 2.0 SPA, in the expectation that career-grade medical staff undertake additional roles as part of their normal agreed job plan. This may be reduced to 1.5 PAs or increased to 2.5 SPA for additional responsibilities agreed through job planning. The post holder will have responsibilities across the department, but there will be opportunities to develop subspecialty interests depending on experience and service needs.

There are currently no out-of-hours commitments or supplements associated with this appointment.

About us

We are recognised as one of the leading NHS Foundation Trusts in the UK. Our vision is to Build Healthier Lives, and we recognise that we need incredible staff to do this.

Our commitment to our staff is to create the best place for them to work, and we are dedicated to investing in the health and wellbeing of our staff, including a commitment to offering flexible working where we can; offering our staff a wide variety of training and development opportunities, to support their personal and career development objectives.

UHB is committed to ensuring that our staff are treated fairly and feel that they belong, by creating a kind and inclusive environment. This is about equity of opportunity; removing all barriers, including discrimination and ensuring each individual member of staff reaches their true potential, achieves their ambitions, and thrives in their work. This is more than words. We are taking action. Our commitment to an inclusive culture is embedded at all levels of the organisation where every voice is heard, driven by our diverse and active staff networks, and at Board level by the Fairness Taskforce led by our CEO. We nurture a culture which empowers staff to challenge discriminatory behaviours and to enable people to bring their 'whole self' to a kinder, more connected and bold place to work.

University Hospitals Birmingham is a Smoke-Free premises hospital.

Job responsibilities

The Department of Immunology and Allergy is based at Heartlands Hospital. Clinics are held at both Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

There is a purpose-built day case and shared outpatient facility in Hawthorne House on the Heartlands Hospital site. At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital site, outpatient and day case facilities are shared with haematology, ENT, and respiratory medicine.

Our QPIDS accredited Immunology service looks after a cohort of over 500 patients with a wide range of immunodeficiency disorders and sees approximately 400 new referrals per year. The Queen Elizabeth clinic specialises in secondary immunodeficiency.

There are no inpatient beds associated with the service, but patients are admitted urgently or electively under an appropriate associated service.

Allergy

We have a large multi-professional Allergy service which sees over 1400 new patients a year and has been accredited since 2016 through the IQAS scheme. Our specialist team supports a comprehensive service including rapid access anaphylaxis assessment, omalizumab therapy for urticaria, food, venom, drug, and general anaesthetic allergy testing and challenges, and subcutaneous and sublingual immunotherapy.

Immunology Laboratory

The Immunology Laboratory for the Trust is on the Heartlands site and provides a comprehensive service including assessment for immunodeficiency, allergy, and autoimmune diseases. There are dedicated sections of the laboratory to undertake these investigations including immunochemistry, autoimmunity, or allergy and cells.

Paediatric Immunology and Allergy

The specialty has close links with the paediatric allergy and immunology team which leads managing immunodeficiency and allergy in children. Drs Scott Hackett and Steve Welch are Consultants in Paediatric Immunology, Allergy, and Infectious Diseases based at Heartlands Hospital.

Infectious Diseases Service

The Infectious Diseases team is based in the same purpose-built outpatient facility at Heartlands Hospital, so there has been a long history of collaboration between the services. There are regional specialist services for HIV, TB, Tropical Medicine, viral hepatitis, bone infection, and an outpatient antibiotic therapy service.

For further information regarding this role, please refer to the attached Job Description or contact Dr. Richard Baretto, Immunology & Allergy Consultant, Clinical Service Lead on 0121 424 2357.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Full GMC Registration.
• MBBS, MRCP, and FRCP or evidence of equivalent training or experience.
• Higher education degree such as PhD or MD.

Experience

• Comprehensive clinical experience in allergy, immunology, and laboratory related activities.

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.