Job summary
Working Full time: 37.5 hours per week

An exciting opportunity has become available for a highly motivated Advanced Clinical Practitioner to join the General Surgery team at the Countess of Chester Hospital.The Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) in General Surgery provides expert clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing management of patients presenting with a wide range of surgical conditions. The role includes advanced clinical decision making, leadership, education, service development, and the promotion of high standards of patient safety and quality of care in accordance with local and national guidelines.

Applicants must have an ACP masters qualification or be currently undertaking an ACP programme to be considered for this post. Please note, a trainee ACP would be employed as band 7 until fully qualified.

Main duties of the job
As an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in General Surgery the post holder will mainly be based in the Same Day Emergency Care unit (SDEC) assessing patients with both general surgery and urology presentations, ordering clinical investigations, interpreting results and either independently discharging the patient or working with the surgical team to manage their episode of care. The post holder will also be expected to see surgically referred patients in the Emergency Department, managethe surgical SDEC virtual clinics and will occasionally support general surgery ward rounds. The post holder will be allocated weekly time to develop in all four pillars of advanced practice. The Countessof Chester Hospital has an excellent advanced practice network which offers teaching sessions, a yearly conference and on-going peer support for both trainee and qualified ACPs.

About us
The Trusts services are provided from three locations:

• The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 473 general and acute beds.
• Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 60 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility.
• Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs 5,964 staff (headcount) to provide care and treatment to a population of over 400,000 people living in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire.

The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. Due to its location on the border with North Wales, the Trust also works closely with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

The Trust treats patients from England and some parts of Wales. During 2024/2025, there were approximately 643,000 patient attendances (inpatient, A&E, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery

Details
Date posted: 25 August 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £49,387 to £64,750 a year
Trainee ACP posts will be paid at band 7
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 210-2026-529
Job locations: Countess of Chester Hospital, Liverpool Road, Chester, CH2 1UL, United Kingdom

Job description
Job responsibilities
See Job Description for further details.

Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values. An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the essential criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer YES to the question: Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.

If a DBS is required for your role, you are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee applies which is payable to the DBS Service.Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costswill be deducted from their salary over the first three months of employment.

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

The Trust will not sponsor where the starting salary does not meet immigration rules

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Degree-level professional qualification in nursing or AHP
• NMC/HCPC Registered
• MSc Advanced Practice/Clinical Masters
• Non-Medical Prescriber (V300 Extended Formulary and Supplementary Nurse Prescribing Programme)
• IRMER - trained
• Continuous Professional Development portfolio
• Relevant clinical skills to support clinical practice

Desirable

• Postgraduate Certificate in Education
• Recognised teaching/assessing qualification 998/997/mentorship
• Trained in Advanced Life Support (Adult)
• Basic surgical skills course

Knowledge and experience
Essential

• Knowledge of advanced clinical, psychological, and social needs of patients attending urgent /acute care.
• Excellent clinical reasoning /clinical decision making
• Demonstrates highly developed specialist knowledge and expertise across a wide range of emergency care procedures
• Demonstrable experience of complex decision making
• Good knowledge of national and local targets, NICE Guidelines and policies applicable to urgent care and general surgery
• Relevant previous experience of working at an advanced clinical level.
• Evidence of recent research and audit.
• Evidence of change management and/or innovative practice
• Experience of working in a general surgery environment
• Experience of multi professional working

Desirable

• Experience of leading patient involvement/patient feedback
• Experience in delivery of nurse led services
• Leadership and management experience

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Countess of Chester Hospital, Liverpool Road, Chester, CH2 1UL, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.coch.nhs.uk/working-with-us.aspx (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Lead ACP for Planned care
Rebecca Freeman
r.freeman4@nhs.net
01244364653

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.