Job summary
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is one of the UK's leading University Teaching Hospitals at the cutting edge of clinical practice and research.

The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Imperial was formed as a result of the merger between the departments at St Mary's and Hammersmith Hospitals in 2010. The recognised areas of expertise in those departments has been retained and we offer all aspects of cardiac and thoracic surgery except for cardiopulmonary transplantation. There is specific expertise in complex aortic surgery, minimally- invasive surgery and mitral valve repair.In thoracic surgery, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (via multi-, bi-, or uniport) is routine for anatomical and lesser lung resection as well as in surgery for pleural and mediastinal pathology.

Following recent expansion, there are 4 substantive Consultant Thoracic Surgeons and 6 substantive Consultant Cardiac Surgeons at Imperial. The department has a 2 Specialty Doctors (1 cardiac, 1 thoracic), 2 NTNs and 7 Trust SpRs. We have developed a unique nursing role (Advanced Cardiothoracic Nurse Practitioners) to support resident doctors on the wards. The elective thoracic work is supported by a team of 5 Lung Specialist Nurses and 2 x Pre-assessment nurses. A Hospital-at-Night scheme operates out-of-hours. The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit is run and staffed by the Directorate of Anaesthesia and Critical Care.

Main duties of the job

• Pre-operative assessment and preparation of patients to undergo thoracic surgery, in outpatients, for urgent referrals (including emergency trauma cover at St Mary's site) and the specific cardiothoracic pre-assessment clinics
• Capacity to be a competent operating surgeon with direct or indirect supervision and also assisting the consultants in the operating theatres as required and providing training/supervision to more junior staff and Surgical Care Practitioners, as appropriate
• Continuing responsibilities for post-operative critical care of the patients undergoing cardiac and thoracic surgery and subsequent Level 0/1 care on the wards
• Post-operative follow-up of patients in the outpatient, chest drain or would clinics, working with where indicated
• Partaking in the middle-grade on-call rota
• The accurate and timely recording of clinical data, both written & electronic, as outlined in the Principles of Good Medical Practice described by the GMC, participation in clinical audit and familiarity with Trust IT and information systems
• Communicating effectively with both junior and senior medical colleagues, nursing staff (including Clinical Nurse Specialists for Lung and Cardiothoracic ANPs for ward care), HCSs/AHPs and other hospital staff. Particularly good communication skills with patients, their relatives and carers.

There will be opportunities to make presentations and to be involved in teaching

About us
At Imperial College Healthcare you can achieve extraordinary things with extraordinary people, working with leading clinicians pushing boundaries in patient care. Become part of a vibrant team living our values - expert, kind, collaborative and aspirational. You'll get an experience like no other and will fast forward your career. Benefits include career development, flexible working and wellbeing, staff recognition scheme. Make use of optional benefits including Cycle to work, car lease schemes, season ticket loan or membership options for onsite leisure facilities.

The statutory requirement to be fully Covid-19 vaccinated as a condition of employment from April 2022 is subject to legislative review. At Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, we strongly encourage and support vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against COVID19. The successful applicant may have contact with patients and service users and as part of our pre-employment checks and risk assessments, we will ask all candidates to confirm whether or not they have been fully vaccinated or have a medical exemption.

As part of our continued response to Covid19 we are still conducting the majority of our interviews virtually.

We are committed to equal opportunities and improving the working lives of our staff and will consider applications to work flexibly, part-time or job share. Please talk to us at interview.

Job responsibilities
This post would be especially suited for someone with prior experience in Cardiac or Thoracic Surgery at ST3+ or equivalent level, having MRCS or equivalent, wishing to progress to CCT in Cardiothoracic surgery.

For further details, please refer to the attached Job Description (JD).

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• On GMC registered/ licensed Medical Practitioner
• MB,BS or equivalent medical qualification
• MRCS or equivalent

Desirable

• FRCS or equivalent

Relevant Experience in Specialty/Sub Specialty
Essential

• Full GMC registration / licensed Medical Practitioner
• Expertise in and significant experience of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Intensive Care & High Dependency patient management at senior ST 3+ level
• Evidence of previous achievement of Foundation competencies in line with GMS standards in Good Medical Practice including: oGood clinical care omaintaining good medical practice ogood relationships and communication with patients ogood working relationships with colleagues ogood teaching and training oprofessional behaviour and probity odelivery of good acute clinical care.
• Evidence of competence and significant experience of appropriate independent decision- making out-of-hours (when not directly supervised)
• Eligibility to work in the UK

Desirable

• Evidence of safe conduct of common clinical procedures in Cardio-thoracic surgery including insertion of chest drains, surgical access to the chest (in elective and urgent or emergent trauma situations), ability to assist and perform simple video assisted and open thoracic surgical procedures
• Evidence of maintaining validated and appropriately anonymized logbook of outcomes in Cardio-Thoracic surgical procedures
• Familiarity and ability to perform simple diagnostic bronchoscopy
• Keenness to learn and demonstrate insight into career progression in Thoracic surgery

Clinical Skills
Essential

• Acute care safe: up- to-date (C)ALS. Out of hours experience relevant to the job
• Relevant specialty clinical knowledge: Capacity to apply sound clinical knowledge relevant to the job; specialty knowledge exam
• Clinical judgment: experience in making clinical decisions and managing risk
• Knowing when to seek help, able to prioritise clinical need
• Practical skills: shows excellent aptitude for practical skills required in the job
• Proven ability to work effectively in the various different clinical settings required in the job
• To be technically able in this complex, testing and highly technical surgical specialty
• Competence and significant experience in the pre-operative assessment, continuing post- operative critical care and ongoing clinical management of patients undergoing cardiac and thoracic surgery
• Evidence of accuracy, care and timely recording of all necessary clinical data, both written and electronic

Desirable

• CALS certificate or ALS instructor certificate
• An excellent understanding of and enthusiasm for the intricacies of cardiovascular and respiratory anatomy and physiology and cardiac and thoracic pathology
• Hospital at night team working/experience

Audit
Essential

• Clinical governance: Capacity to be alert to dangers or problems. Demonstrates awareness of good decision making
• Track record of engaging in clinical governance: reporting errors, learning from errors
• Evidence of active participation in audit.

Desirable

• Evidence of active participation in auditResearch skills: Demonstrates understanding of the principles of research; evidence of relevant academic and research achievements
• Teaching: evidence of interest and experience in teaching where required in the job

Language Skills
Essential

• All applicants to have demonstrable skills in written and spoken English that are adequate to enable effective communication about medical topics with patients and colleagues, which could be demonstrated by one of the following
• oapplicants have undertaken undergraduate medical training in English
• oapplicants have scores in the academic International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or equivalent equal to those required for recruitment to MMC specialty training programs
• If applicants believe that they have adequate communication skills but do not fit into one of the examples they need to provide evidence

Probity
Essential

• Honesty, integrity, appreciation of ethical dilemmas.
• Must be able to demonstrate and model the key Trust values of kind, expert, collaborative, aspirational

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).