A Vacancy at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Applications are invited for the 12-month fixed term Locum Consultant Radiologist with a subspecialty interest in Musculoskeletal. This a whole time offering an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated Locum Consultant to join a dynamic, rapidly expanding team delivering multidisciplinary acute care in Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.
The post will maintain and increase our current establishment of consultant radiologists and allow further development of the imaging and MSK service, including extended day working.
The Trust has excellent management, robust systems and innovative processes all of which have underpinned a period of sustained and improved performance.
The Diagnostic Imaging Service at both Whiston and St Helens Hospitals was awarded the highest possible CQC rating of ‘Outstanding’ (the only such acute Trust service in the country to be awarded this rating).
We are a progressive friendly department and we can offer flexible working patterns including the potential for home working as part of the job plan.
The post will maintain and increase our current establishment of consultant radiologists and allow further development of the imaging and MSK service, including extended day working.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.
Our services:
Acute Care
Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care
Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services
Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
Specialist Regional Services
We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements:
• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
Department Facilities
The Radiology Departments contain an extensive range of imaging facilities to support the work of both hospitals. There is a GEMS MES in place ensuring regular planned refresh of all the imaging equipment with a robust planned maintenance programme. In 2018-19, this has included the installation of four 128 slice GE scanners and three GE MRI scanners – including a 3T and two 1.5T wide bore scanners. On the STHK site, we have 8 GE USS machines and 2 CANON machines.
There is an interventional suite equipped with a Siemens Artis Q ceiling mounted C arm system, two C-Arm fluoroscopy rooms,15 ultrasound rooms, gamma camera with SPECT/CT, DEXA, dental, OPG and coned beam CT and 13 plain film rooms, of which the majority are DR.
Particulars of the post.
The radiological workload and complexity within the department has increased markedly and is continuing to do so in keeping with national trends. The PFI scheme and Managed Equipment Service has expanded the department dramatically since the new facilities opened. The department has a progressive outlook and has embraced many new techniques.
The department has a proactive strategy to ensure the highest standard of patient care is maintained. This is supported by well-structured and comprehensive governance processes. In 2019, the department achieved accreditation to the Quality Standard for imaging (QSI) (Imaging Services Accreditation Scheme) by the RCR and CoR, the first imaging department to receive the award in the Cheshire and Merseyside area.
The successful applicant is required to maintain the expanding workload of the department including supporting the extensive department input into MDT meetings, to meet waiting list targets and to enable the introduction of extended working. The appointed individual would be expected to contribute to the general workload of the department. There is flexibility in the number of general sessions expected. There are currently 13 full time consultants, 9 less than full time consultants, 1 Associate Specialist, 1 specialty doctor and 1 Locum consultant.
The department’s current consultants operate very much as a team and are looking for colleagues who are keen to work in this environment. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the general workload and participate in the on call rota, Currently 1 in 17. The consultants are second on call. The initial contact for on call imaging is provided by a central on call Hub staffed by regional STs supported by an integrated RIS (Wellbeing) and PACS - Carestream Global Worklist. This service is provided on weekdays from 5pm to 9am and during weekends. The on-call radiologist is on site on weekends from 9am-3pm.
The successful candidate will take part in the diagnostic general on call rota.
On call interventional radiology support is provided by Liverpool University hospitals.
The successful candidate will support the existing Radiologists. This is an additional post to help support the expanding workload.
The department receives 7-9 Radiology SpRs from the Mersey Region Training Scheme. All consultants are involved in supervision and training of trainees both on site and at the University of Liverpool.
Office accommodation for consultants is shared. Each radiologist has access to a computer terminal, email and the intranet. Separate reporting areas are present both at Whiston and St Helens sites.
PACS reporting workstations are available to provide on call teleradiology advice and allow homeworking for consultants.
The radiology reporting information system is HSS Cris and our PACS supplier is Carestream.
We are part of the Cheshire and Merseyside PACS consortium with a shared PACS and RIS instance across 14 Trusts. We have awaiting a regionwide PACS upgrade and will be trialling PACS voice recognition for reports.
This advert closes on Wednesday 26 Feb 2025
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