The successful applicant will join an established team of 6 consultants (4.2 WTE) and 2 registrars in a friendly, dynamic & forward-thinking department with on-site laboratory.
The interview will be held on Thursday 30th January 2025
The department seeks a full-time Consultant in Medical Microbiology or Medical Microbiology/ID or Consultant Clinical Scientists in Medical Microbiology. On-call duties are anticipated to be approx. 1:5-1:6 weekdays and weekends with prospective cover & category A availability supplement.
Bury St Edmunds is a lovely, historic market town in the heart of East Anglia, with several leisure and cultural offerings. There are easy transport links to Cambridge, Norwich, the coast, and London as well as Stansted and Norwich airports and Harwich port for international travel.
Prospective applicants requiring further information or who would like to visit the department are invited to contact Dr Philippa King, Consultant Microbiologist, on 01284 712635 or philippa.king@wsh.nhs.uk
Please refer to the supporting job description and person specification which will outline the duties of the role.
Interviews to be held on Friday the 30th January 2025
Please See Full Job Description attached for details
The successful candidates will share the responsibility for providing a comprehensive clinical microbiology service to the Trust, local GPs and other organisations who hold a contract with the Trust.
All consultants are expected to contribute to departmental activities including, but not limited to:
Interpretation & authorisation of results
Ward rounds & MDTs
Infection prevention & control advice
Maintaining a quality laboratory & clinical microbiology service and contributing to the activities required for UKAS accreditation.
Fulfilling a lead role on a rotational basis (by mutual agreement): Microbiology Clinical Lead/Laboratory Director, Infection Prevention Doctor, Antimicrobial Stewardship Lead and Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy Lead
Teaching and leadership development of all grades of staff and training to be a Clinical/Educational Supervisor
On-call commitment (expected to be 1:5-1:6 weekdays and weekends with prospective cover). This is usually telephone cover only, including weekends. A Trust laptop will be provided to enable remote access to the IT systems. The on-call availability supplement is Category A (5% for a 1:5-1:6 frequency) and an additional 1 PA is paid (for medical colleagues, and the equivalent for consultant clinical scientists) in respect of the unpredictable out of hours commitment; this is reviewed during the annual job planning process. See the job description & person specification for further details.
#BeKnown at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. By us. By our patients. By our community
We are a busy, friendly, rural NHS Trust providing high-quality care and compassion to more than a quarter of a million people across west Suffolk. We care for, treat and support people in hospital, at home and in various community settings.
The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds provides acute and secondary care services (emergency department, maternity and neonatal services, day surgery unit, eye treatment centre, Macmillan unit and children's ward). It has 500+ beds and is a partner teaching hospital of the University of Cambridge.
Adult and paediatric community services, provided in collaboration with West Suffolk Alliance partners, include a range of nursing, therapy, specialist, and ongoing temporary care and rehabilitation, some at our Newmarket Community Hospital.
We do our utmost to achieve outstanding clinical outcomes for patients and our values of fairness, inclusivity, respect, safety and team work guide how we work and behave as a team.
With nearly 5,000 staff, from all over the world, we strive to make our organisation a great place to work. Whatever your role or ambition, we want to help you be the best you can be.
We promote a diverse and inclusive community where everyones voice counts and you can #BeKnown for whoever you are.
Join us. What will you #BeKnown for?
Please see the Job Description and Person Specification attached for full details of the post.
The Microbiology Department
The Microbiology Laboratory provides a comprehensive service covering all aspects of general microbiology to the West Suffolk Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (circa 500 beds plus Virtual Ward), Newmarket Community Hospital (33 beds) and GPs in Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding catchment area. The laboratory is located in the main West Suffolk Hospital building.
The microbiology department was assessed by UKAS against ISO15189:2012 standards in December 2023 and has been granted accreditation on the 12th August 2024. The department are awaiting assessment for their first surveillance visit in early 2025.
The microbiology Laboratory Manager is Mr Marcus Milner. There are four Band 7 Biomedical Scientists who lead on Health & Safety, Quality and Training.
Administrative support for the Microbiology Department, Consultants and Infection Prevention Team is provided by named members of the Pathology Administrative & Clerical team. Team-based administrative support across Pathology helps ensure demand is met regardless of holidays, sickness and any other absence. This team approach also helps with appropriate support when most needed, for example during outbreaks.
Pathology uses the CliniSys WinPath Enterprise laboratory information management system and the Q-pulse quality management system.
Office space containing a personal computer (with access to email, the internet and the relevant IT systems) will be provided within the West Suffolk Hospital Microbiology Department. A laptop will also be provided to facilitate remote on-call working.
The Laboratory undertakes routine bacteriology, parasitology, serology and antibiotic susceptibility testing. It participates in the UKNEQAS schemes for general bacteriology, antimicrobial susceptibility, faecal parasitology, mycology and appropriate viral serology. There is also an internal quality assurance scheme.
There is an automated blood culture system (BioMerieux BacT/ALERT), automated urinalysis (Beckman Coulter DxU), a Bruker MALDI-TOF, Serosep EntericBio and BioMerieux BioFire FilmArray.
C. difficile toxin gene testing is performed on a Cepheid GeneXpert. Rapid antigen testing is available for Norovirus.
The bulk of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza testing is performed on SAMBA IIs in a designated laboratory area within the Emergency Department. Paediatrics have Roche LIAT and Lumira DX analysers for point-of-care Influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2 testing.
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing uses both the BioMerieux Vitek 2 automated system and EUCAST standardised disc methods.
Gentamicin and Vancomycin assays are performed in the Biochemistry department; other antimicrobial assays are referred to the Bristol antimicrobial reference laboratory.
Serological testing, including antenatal serology, is performed on a DiaSorin Liaison XL.
Chlamydia & Neisseria gonorrhoeae NAATs testing is currently performed at Micropathology. Other molecular testing is performed at UKHSA Cambridge, and specialist virology advice is obtained from regional virologists.
Mycobacterial culture is undertaken at a reference laboratory at present. AAFB staining is performed on site.
Urgent overnight microbiology samples are transported to UKHSA Cambridge for testing at present, with a plan to repatriate this service. Abnormal results are communicated to the West Suffolk Hospital Consultant Microbiologist on call.
WSFT has also been confirmed as one of 40 Trusts across the country to receive funding for a new build hospital from the Government’s Health Infrastructure Programme. Planning is well underway, and the Pathology Department has a wonderful opportunity to create a purpose-built department to enable further development of a modernised service for our patients and users.
The post-holder will be provided with a Trust laptop to enable remote access into the hospital and pathology computer systems.
Out-of-hours infection prevention advice is provided by the on-call Consultant Microbiologist.
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