Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

An exciting opportunity has become available for a highly skilled Speech and Language Therapist specialising in acute and critical care medicine to join the team at St George's Hospital NHS Trust to cover a maternity leave. The post holder will have lead responsibility for providing a highly specialist Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) service to critical care and general medical services., The post holder will have lead responsibility, where delegated and in consultation with the Principal SLT for Acute SLT Services, for providing a highly specialist SLT service to critical care and general medical services at St George's Healthcare NHS Trust. They will be flexible and have an innovative approach to patient-centered care and efficient service delivery.

The service covers acute medical and surgical conditions coming under the care of critical care and acute medical specialties. They will be responsible for participating in clinical governance and service development, in collaboration with line manager.

They will be an autonomous practitioner providing a highly specialist SLT service to critical care and acute in-patients. They will be expected to manage their own caseload, provide second opinions and specialist advice. The post holder will support junior staff, ensuring supervision, appraisal, and development in conjunction with other SLT leads.

The post holder will work alongside the multidisciplinary team to ensure therapy programs and care plans are in place for patients under their care. You will be expected to lead collaborative working with patients, carers and colleagues internally and externally planning and delivering services.

They will participate in team meetings, audit, and research projects on a regular basis. They will plan, deliver, and evaluate training within the hospital setting to other professionals on all aspects of SLT.

The post holder will have experience working and be an autonomous practitioner in acute and intensive care medicine, managing dysphagia and communication in adult patients with a range of etiologies, including tracheostomised and ventilated patients.They will refer on to and may participate in instrumental clinics, including videofluoroscopy and fibreoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing.

The post holder will have advanced communication skills and be a strong team player and leader. They will be flexible and have an innovative approach to patient centered care and efficient service delivery.

The post holder will complete assessment and intervention or communication and swallowing impairments with adult inpatients working closely with the multidisciplinary team,supported by the SLT Team Leads.

The post holder will receive regular clinical supervision and support to develop specialist clinical and non-clinical skills. They will be joining a highly proficient, professional, patient centred, and innovative SLT team offering excellent support.

Their main site, St George's Hospital in Tooting - one of the country's principal teaching hospitals - is shared with St George's, University of London, which trains medical students and carries out advanced medical research. St George's Hospital also hosts the St George's, University of London and Kingston University Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, which is responsible for training a wide range of healthcare professionals from across the region.

As well as acute hospital services, they provide a wide variety of specialist care and a full range of community services to patients of all ages following integration with Community Services Wandsworth in 2010.St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of 1.3 million across southwest London. A large number of services, such as cardiothoracic medicine and surgery, neurosciences and renal transplantation, also cover significant populations from Surrey and Sussex, totalling around 3.5 million people.The trust also provides care for patients from a larger catchment area in southeast England, for specialties such as complex pelvic trauma. Other services treat patients from all over the country, such as family HIV care and bone marrow transplantation for non-cancer diseases. The trust also provides a nationwide state-of-the-art endoscopy training centre.