Trust Senior House Officer- General Surgery, ST1 / 2 (MN35)

An exciting opportunity exists to appoint a substantive Trust Senior House Officer (CT1/CT2 equivalent) to the General Surgery department at our hospital. The successful candidate will be linked with elective breast surgery but there will be opportunity to rotate to other surgical subspecialties based on the candidates' training needs.
The post will be fully integrated into the elective and emergency workload of the department. The successful candidates will be part of a 1:10 rota, covering emergencies in General Surgery and Urology.
On calls are supported by two F1's during the day and one F1 at night; and one resident registrar on call on the site at all times The emergency take is supported by three consultants. One from the Emergency Surgical Assessment Unit, one Emergency theatre surgeon and one on-call consultant. All candidates must be eligible for registration with the General Medical Council. Please note this post will close when sufficient applicants have been received., The Main duties of the post will involve seeing, diagnosing, and treating General Surgical patients, referring to other clinicians or general practitioners where appropriate and theatre. There will also be involvement in the management of the linked elective subspecialty patients. You will be expected to work closely with appropriate nursing, professional, technical, administrative and support staff.
You will be responsible jointly with the Registrars for ensuring high standard of care is delivered to patients. In particular, the teams should organised themselves such that twice-daily review of patients occurs at Watford General Hospital. You will be responsible for ensuring adequate clinical notes are made in accordance with good medical practice.
The post involves working across three sites at Watford General Hospital, Hemel Hempstead General Hospital and St Albans City Hospital., Junior doctors are required to perform duties over and above their contracted hours in occasional emergencies and in unforeseen circumstances, at the request of the Clinical Director of the service. It has been agreed with the profession and the Department of Health that these additional commitments are exceptional and juniors should not be required to undertake work of this kind for a prolonged period or on a regular basis.
The department is fully committed to the practice of Medical and Clinical Audit and you will be expected to take part in this process. The department has a programme of continuing quality improvement, in which you may become involved. You are encouraged to formulate clinical projects and be capable of performing and interpreting audit findings. This Trust encourages junior medical staff to study for approved postgraduate qualification and it is therefore important that junior doctors should discuss their study leave requirements with their consultants and the clinical tutors early in their appointment.
The rota is based on internal cover for leave of other colleagues. Annual Leave entitlement is 13.5 days per six-month period (including Statutory Days). The SHOs and Trust SHOs, though heavily committed to the service needs of the department, will be encouraged to pursue an appropriate research interest.
There are very active Postgraduate Medical Centres on both hospital sites, with lecture theatres, seminar rooms and well-stocked libraries taking a number of journals. There are facilities for on-line literature searches and MEDLINE available on CD-ROM at both sites. There is a full-time administrator and librarian at both hospitals.
Regular lunchtime meetings are held for local General Practitioners and hospital medical staff (weekly Grand Round) on both sites. There is in addition a wide variety of Postgraduate training in other disciplines and the trainee will be able to attend a range of such meetings. The respective Postgraduate Medical Centres Administrators issue a full programme each term.
The post holder will be indemnified by the trust for all NHS work undertaken as part of the contract of employment. It is advised however that in addition the post holder should take out adequate professional defence cover for such activities as do not fall within the scope of the Trust indemnity scheme, such as work undertaken outside the NHS, such as Good Samaritan acts.
This post is covered by the Medical and Dental Terms and Conditions of Service. The post is subject to the policies and procedures of the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

With a new hospital planned for Watford and work underway to update theatres at St Albans City Hospital, this is an exciting time to join us.
We are building on the success of our award-winning virtual hospital and re-imaging models of care, working ever more closely with partners and making the most of advances in digital healthcare.
Staff wellbeing and development are a priority at our Trust, as is the role of innovation in improving clinical care, outcomes and patient experience.
Our vision is Excellent patient care, together and our values are to be empowered, compassionate, professional and inclusive. They capture an important balance across what we must all do as individuals and to support others.
At West Herts we offer a variety of flexible working options as we recognise the importance of a good work life balance and the ability to work flexibly. https://www.westhertshospitals.nhs.uk/flexibleworking