Consultant in Geriatric & General Medicine

Offers are open for two enthusiastic and passionate candidates to join the department of Older People's Medicine at Ipswich Hospital, part of East Suffolk and North East Essex foundation trust as a substantive consultant. Full time, part time and flexible working opportunities will be considered. It is an exciting time to join the trust as we plan the roll out of Epic - our new electronic health record in 2025.

This forward thinking and innovative department is developing services that begin in the heart of the community. We care for patients in their home using the virtual ward, and through the whole span of their journey within the acute hospital - from specialist assessment in the emergency department to seamless specialist care in our frailty assessment base and our short stay frailty unit.

There has never been a more exciting time to join our team and work with us to develop services to meet the needs of our older population, enabling them to age well and with dignity in an ever-changing landscape. We don't believe in always doing the same things and we welcome individuals who can bring new ideas and thoughts to the table. Our division and wider Trust supports the development of new services, along with opportunities to engage with research and innovative ways to deliver the best, tailored care to all our older adults.

An Enhanced Relocation Package including a Lump Sum Payment may be available for the right candidate.

https://esneft.pagetiger.com/bxaronm/1, The successful candidate will share a complex Older Peoples Ward with a colleague and will be responsible for 14 inpatients. This is supported by a team of juniors - middle grade, CMT and FY1 doctors. Ward cover will involve a daily consultant led board round, regular ward rounds and time for relatives meetings as well as monthly clinical governance meeting. The post holder will be expected to provide appropriate clinical leadership to the progressive, innovative multidisciplinary ward team, in conjunction with the other consultant and ward sister.

This post includes 2 Frailty Assessment sessions per week, this involves seeing up to 4 patients with the specialist nursing, pharmacy and therapy team in the Frailty Assessment Base for a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, we have access to dietitian, community therapy and REACT. There will be a share of covering the "hot phone" this is a mobile phone which enables any GP or community therapist to phone for advice, currently this is 2 - 8 calls a day and is part of the FAB session. The number of FAB session per week can be altered to accommodate the sub-specialty interest of any successful candidate. For example - Movement Disorder, Falls, Surgical Liaison, Interface Geriatrics and Frailty. The other aspect of the job will be joining a consultant colleagues covering 14 patients on one of our Older People's Wards (complex short stay frailty unit), supported by an SpR, CMT and two FY1 doctors.

We are at a very exciting time at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust as our £150 million development programme takes shape.Over the next five years, we are changing the landscape of care, bringing additional and improved services to the 1 million people we serve in Suffolk and North East Essex.

At our Ipswich hospital site, we are in the process of building a state-of-the-art Urgent Treatment Centre, co-located with a new Emergency Department which is due to open in Summer '24. We have a new Acute Medical Same Day Emergency Care unit, co-located with our Medical Emergency Assessment Unit, a recently built Acute Respiratory Care Unit and newly opened new Surgical Assessment Unit. We have an award-winning Frailty Assessment Base, linking directly with our virtual ward programme and community teams, including a comprehensive set of admission avoidance services within our integrated primary and secondary care system. Over the past couple of years, we have also heavily invested in our ward refurbishment programme; ensuring maximised ward specialty adjacencies, refurbishments to include dementia friendly and additional ward areas created to support seasonal pressures.

We have a simple philosophy: Time Matters. Time matters for our patients, their families and our staff. By focusing on time, we can remove unnecessary stress and frustration - giving our patients a better experience and to make sure you have more time to care and make the most of your skills.