Senior Clinical Fellow In Infectious Diseases / Microbiology

A clinical fellow post at Guy's and St Thomas offers an exciting opportunity to gain experience in a wide range of complex infection cases expected in a large acute and tertiary referral teaching hospital.
This post may also involve acquiring laboratory skills in Microbiology and Virology and applying these to a ward-based consult service on the Guy's, St. Thomas', Royal Brompton or Harefield site, or to looking after infectious diseases in-patients on the St. Thomas' site.
The post is suitable for clinicians experienced in Infectious Diseases / Microbiology / Virology (equivalent to ST3+ level), available to start asap.
The post involves opportunities to contribute to the wide-ranging clinical infection service run at Guy's, St Thomas', The Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals which compromises an inpatient ward, on site laboratories and specialist services focussing on delivering consults.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends., Clinical consultation/microbiology & virology laboratory service:
The clinical and diagnostic services are fully integrated. Most clinical work involves liaison with the diverse clinical specialities in the Trust. This may be via clinical consults or telephone advice.
There is a specialised inpatient ward with facilities to manage HCID cases.
The Dept supports a wide range of specialist services via MDTs. There is a very large ITU service including a regional severe respiratory failure service.
On-call
The on call commitment is at a 1 in 9 frequency weekday nights (Monday-Friday) If on call, the postholder would also be expected to cover the High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) service, if activated, and after appropriate training., A clinical fellow post at Guy's and St Thomas offers an exciting opportunity to gain experience in a wide range of complex infection cases expected in a large acute and tertiary referral teaching hospital.
he post may also involve acquiring laboratory skills in Microbiology and Virology and applying these to a ward-based consult service on the Guy's, St. Thomas', Royal Brompton or Harefield site, or to looking after infectious diseases in-patients on the St. Thomas' site. It may be possible to tailor the location in discussion with the service lead and local training faculty lead.

2. Liaison with major clinical units
Specimens are received from a wide range of departments including: Intensive Care Unit, HIV & Genitourinary Medicine, Renal Dialysis and Transplantation, Oncology, Haematology, Orthopaedics, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Haematology, cardiac and lung transplantation, specialist respiratory medicine (including cystic fibrosis), Evelina London Children's Hospital (including the Neonatal Unit), Obstetrics, and Occupational Health. The Department also provides a comprehensive service for local Primary Care Trusts.
3. Direct clinical responsibilities
Clinical consultation/microbiology & virology laboratory service: The clinical and diagnostic services are fully integrated. Most clinical work involves liaison with the diverse clinical specialities in the Trust. This may be via clinical consults comprising bedside assessment of referred patients or patients with significant microbiological or virological results, or telephone advice.
The Dept supports a wide range of specialist services via MDTs including vascular graft infections, endocarditis, diabetic foot and TB.
There is a specialised inpatient ward with facilities to manage HCID cases and predominantly single room mix for general infection cases.
There is a very large ITU service including a regional severe respiratory failure service.
The trainees work one to one with the infection consultant but are also expected to review referrals on the wards.
4. Clinical service routine

The hours of work will be 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday, plus any agreed on-call duties. Work outside these times may be required as necessary professional duties; nevertheless, the hours of work accord to the requirements of the 'New Deal' on Doctor's hours, the European Working Time Directive and the New Junior Doctors' Contract. It is a condition of employment that the appointee be prepared to work at any site where work relating to the appointment is carried out.
The post holder may be required to undertake other duties in line with the grading of the post as may be required by the head of department. Staff should recognise that job descriptions reflect the core activities of a post at a particular time and that as the Institution and the individual develops there will inevitably be changes in the emphasis and duties of the post. The Trust expects that all staff will recognise this and adopt a flexible approach to work and be willing to participate in training. If changes to a job description become significant the job description should be reviewed formally by the Head of Department and the post holder. At all times staff must conduct themselves and carry out their duties in a manner which supports the Trust's equal opportunities policy and ensues that the working and learning environment provided within the Trust is free from bias or harassment.
The junior doctor accepts that he/she will also perform duties in occasional emergencies in unforeseen circumstances at the request of the appropriate Consultant, in consultation where practicable with his colleagues both junior and senior. It has been arranged between the Professions and the Department of Health that while they will perform such duties, the Secretary of State stresses that additional commitments arising out of this sub-section are exceptional; in particular, the junior should not be required to undertake work of this kind for long periods of time.
5. On-call
The postholder will be on the pay scale commensurate with their grade/experience. Rotations that involve the Guy's or St Thomas' sites would include an on call commitment at a 1 in 9 frequency weekday nights (Monday-Friday) as first on call for Infection (Microbiology and Virology) advice to the Trust. If on call, the postholder would also be expected to cover the High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) service, if activated, and after appropriate training. This will include being contactable via mobile telephone. The StR on call will be covered at all times by a Consultant Virologist and Consultant Microbiologist from the department. The oncall commitment of this post will be timetabled with other junior medical staff in the Department to accord with the requirements of the 'New Deal' and European Working Time Directive.
This can be discussed further to provide detail on the arrangements which will apply in varying circumstances., The Departments provide training and teaching for a wide range of professional groups, including postgraduate doctors in training, medical students, nurses, allied health professionals and laboratory staff. On occasion the postholder will be expected to contribute to the teaching of medical students. Especially when they become more senior, they are encouraged to get more involved in postgraduate teaching and teaching of nursing staff and allied health professionals. Attendance at relevant teaching courses run by the Trust is encouraged.
7. Research possibilities
The post holder can be supported to develop R&D skills through participation in ongoing research projects. There are extensive research projects ongoing within the department and a well resource research infrastructure. The CIDR has particular interests in the pathogenesis and epidemiology of hospital-associated infection (especially C. difficile and MDR-Gram negative bacteria), S. aureus bacteraemia, and novel diagnostics, as well as an interest in Covid-19., There is an active clinical audit programme within the Department. The postholder is expected to lead audit projects through the 'audit cycle'. The Trust Clinical Audit Department provides advice and support in all aspects of clinical audit.
9. Management training
Experience should be gained, under supervision, in planning departmental policies and developing leadership qualities to implement them. Post-holders routinely take on responsibilities such as management of the on call rota and organisation of the Tuesday morning educational Seminars. Once post-holders have achieved a certain seniority, they will be expected to attend meetings such as diagnostic service meetings, Infection Control meetings and senior staff meetings. Attendance at appropriate management meetings and training courses is encouraged towards the end of the training programme.
10. University links
Guy's, King's College & St Thomas' School of Medicine (GKT) is a School of King's College London. GKT is the largest free-standing medical and dental school in the UK with a projected annual intake of approximately 360 medical and 150 dental undergraduate and over 400 full time and part time postgraduate students. The GKT Department of Infectious Diseases comprises the Microbiology and Virology staff on the Guy's, St Thomas' and Denmark Hill campuses and their work is closely integrated with the GSTT Directorate of Infection. Members of the Departments of Infectious Diseases, Immunobiology, Rheumatology, Renal Medicine, Transplantation, the Neuroinflammation group and some members of the current Immunology Department at Denmark Hill, form the Division of Infection, Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases (DIIID).
Guy's and St Thomas' celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study's at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.
Flexible working
We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual's personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.
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Experience should be gained, under supervision, in planning departmental policies and developing leadership qualities to implement them.

Guy's and St Thomas' is among the UK's busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy's is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas' has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children's Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King's Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King's College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of 'good'. Our adult community services achieved a rating of 'outstanding'.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS., Working for our organisation
Dr Nicholas Price is the Clinical Director and joint-Director of IPC (DIPC) and Ms Avey Bhatia, Chief Nurse, has Executive IPC responsibility. Dr Sam Douthwaite (Infectious Diseases) and Dr Simon Goldenberg (Laboratories) are the medical Service Leads.
IPC staff are led by joint-DIPC, Dr Jon Otter, plus a dedicated ID pharmacy team. Every DoI consultant works in partnership with IPC colleagues.
The Royal Brompton and Harefield (RB&HH) hospitals, which make up the UK's largest postgraduate specialist heart and lung centre, were merged with Guy's and St Thomas' NHS foundation Trust (GSTT) in February 2021.
The Directorate also works closely with 7 Paediatric ID Consultants based at the Evelina London Children's Hospital on the St Thomas' site.
In addition, the DoI hosts one of the national high-level infection units for High Consequence Infectious Diseases-airborne pathogens (HCID-a).
The DoI is fully integrated with, and provides clinical leadership to, the Microbiology and Virology laboratories, which are part of a 15-year Joint Venture (JV) between GSTT, Kings College Hospital and a private sector partner.