Speciality Doctor in Palliative Medicine

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, skilled doctor to join our Palliative Care team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LTHTR) on a 12 month fixed term basis to cover maternity leave. This post is for 3 days a week as part of a job share arrangement. Ideally the successful candidate would work on a Monday and Thursday, and a 3rd day to be negotiated.

The post holder will join the Specialist Palliative Care Team in providing a liaison service for adult inpatients across the Trust and will be responsible for middle grade support to the Palliative Care Consultants in the department at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Referrals to the service are received from all inpatient departments within the Trust.

Main duties of the job

Please see job description for a full list of key duties and responsibilities which includes:

Work closely with other members of the multi-professional team to ensure delivery of holistic care to patients and their families/carers.

Assess, diagnose and manage palliative care patients referred in the inpatient and outpatient setting.

Support patients and those important to them in understanding their condition and what they might expect, including in those circumstances when patients present with symptoms that could have several causes.

Identify and advise on appropriate treatment options or preventive measures

Explain and discuss the risks and benefits of various tests and treatments and where possible support patients to make decisions about their own care.

Liaise with other Specialist Palliative Care Services.

Coordinate patient care at the point of discharge and in the outpatient setting.

Maintain a high level of communication between other healthcare professionals involved in the patient's care e.g. telephone conversations.

Communicate confidentially and sensitivity with integrity at all times. Ensure colleagues uphold the same standard

Complete accurate and contemporaneous documentation including records of care, referrals, and clinical notes using written and electronic formats., The Hospital Palliative Care Team covers both the Preston and Chorley Hospital sites in provision of a liaison service for adult inpatients across Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. The service receives an average of 2000 referrals per year. An increasing proportion of referrals are for patients with a non-cancer diagnosis both from the local population and across the tertiary services. New referrals to the IP service are discussed at a weekly MDT and allocated to a caseload for assessment. There is a 7 day face to face palliative care service on both sites. Patients requiring joint medical input with the CNS's to support ongoing care are identified in MDT meetings, daily board rounds and weekend handover meetings. The team is committed to on-going service development, and has strong working relationships with Medical teams, Acute Oncology and cancer site specific staff.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest providers of healthcare in the area and has a complement of over 930 beds for a local population of 390,000 and a regional population of 1.5 million. The Trust forms one of the major acute Trusts in the North West with all of the usual specialties on site as well as being a Tertiary Centre for Lancashire and South Cumbria in the departments of Neurosciences, Oncology, Renal Medicine, major trauma, plastics and burns, specialist mobility and rehabilitation and vascular services.