Job summary
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust wishes to appoint a full-time NHS Consultant in Nephrology predominantly based at The New Royal University Hospital site.

The person appointed will predominantly be based at The New Royal University Hospital site and will be joining a friendly and dedicated Nephrology Team. Applicants are required to hold membership of the Royal College of Physicians or equivalent qualifications, to be fully registered with the General Medical Council and listed on the Specialist Register (or due to be registered within six months of the date of interview. They should have dual accreditation in Nephrology and General Internal Medicine. Appointee will join a team of 21 Nephrologists. A full range of renal replacement therapies are provided both on site and in satellite units and a comprehensive general nephrology service is supported by the Consultants. Post will also support the existing renal replacement therapy or other speciality area in the service at the Aintree Hospital site. There is a 1 in 20 commitment to the nephrology on-call rota.

Main duties of the job

• Provision of general nephrology, specialist nephrology and acute medical services.
• Fixed clinical sessions including a dialysis clinic, general nephrology clinic, speciality clinics which will be agreed with the post holder after appointment to reflect their specialist interests and service requirements.
• On-call commitment is 1:20 on pro rota basis. The hot blocks on the wards occur on weeks 1,2, 11 and 12 in a 20-week cycle.
• The appointee is expected to attend and proactively commit to ongoing improvements in Nephrology & transplant MDT meetings, Renal Biopsy meetings, Clinical Directorate and Governance meetings.
• To receive acute referrals from Merseyside and Cheshire while on-call as part of the on-call consultant rota.
• The post holder would be expected to actively take part in audit, teaching and research. The Unit has contributed to the Renal Registry since 2002.
• It is envisaged that the post holder would provide Consultant level nephrology cover for the Regional Renal Transplant Unit whilst on-call and support any future developments in the working patterns with the transplant team.
• The post holder will have continuing responsibility for the care of patients in his or her charge and for the proper functioning of the service.

About us
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.

For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Aintree University Hospitalis the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility.Broadgreen Hospitalis home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation.Liverpool Women's Hospitalspecialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK's largest single site maternity hospital each year. TheRoyal Liverpool University Hospitalis the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

For roles at Liverpool Women's, visit theircareers page.

Job responsibilities
Department of Nephrology
Following the opening of the New Royal Hospital in October 2022, the Nephrology in-patient bed base has relocated and is consolidated across two wards in the New Royal Hospital. The Nephrology in-patient bed base has 42 beds (includes 8 regional renal High Care beds) and is co-located with Renal Transplant surgery who have 14 beds. The new model ensures that ALL complex renal patients in the region (transplant, dialysis, AKI needing organ support, complex immunosuppression) have equitable access 24/7 to a bespoke MDT Tertiary unit.

The Nephrology footprint extends beyond LUHFTs sites; the LUHFT renal team provide all aspects of kidney care - Acute Kidney Injury (AKI); Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD); Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT); conservative management of patients who choose not to have dialysis/transplant; and transplantation across Merseyside, including parts of Cheshire (Population c.1.06m). The Renal Transplant Unit provides services to the Wirral and North Wales (Population 2.5m).

The Regional Renal unit has a 33 stationed dialysis unit in the lower ground floor, with 8 bedded High Care Unit in ward 7C and another 21 dialysis plumbed rooms between the wards 7C and 7B.

In response to the NCEPOD Report there is a robust and responsive strategy for management of acute kidney injury (AKI) both within the Trust and in outlying Trusts with an integrated alert programme highlighting new cases of AKI. There are satellite dialysis units at Broadgreen Hospital, St Helens Hospital, Warrington Hospital, Halton Hospital, Waterloo dialysis unit and Southport hospital. Clinical Governance for these patients rests wholly within the Royal Liverpool University Hospital Nephrology Directorate, within the Divisional and Trust structure for clinical governance and risk management.

The Renal Transplant Unit (RTU) serves Merseyside, North Wales, and the Isle of Man. The transplant team performs approximately around 100 renal transplants per year with a planned programme to increase to 120 per year. This includes an active living door transplant programme and a comprehensive programme involving both non-heart beating donation and ABO incompatible donor transplants. Major investment here recently includes the agreed planned expansion of Consultant Transplant Surgeon numbers from 5 to 6. All Consultant Nephrologists when on-call have a commitment to nephrology consultations in the RTU. As per national recommendation patients who have been transplanted for more than 12 months are transferred back to Nephrology and are seen in dedicated post-transplant follow up clinic. We also attend acute transplant clinics and perform in-patient transplant reviews.

There are excellent opportunities and facilities for research within the Trust. The present areas of interest within the Renal Unit are diverse and include inhouse research capabilities along with involvement in various national and international studies.

We are committed to submitting data to the UK Renal Registry and pursue the standards set in the NICE, UKKA standards and agreed yearly CQUINS with commissioners. There is a robust quality assurance management programme with regular MDT meetings and audit reviews.

Services:
Along with General Nephrology Clinic, we provide several sub specialist clinics including Immunosuppression Clinic, Renal transplant follow up clinic, home therapies clinic, Advanced Kidney care clinic, Dialysis clinic, Conservative Management Clinic, Polycystic Kidney Disease Clinic, Renal pregnancy clinic, Tuberous sclerosis clinic, Diabetic renal clinic, Myeloma-Amyloid joint haematology clinic. In addition, we run sub-specialist MDTs including Genomic MDT, Transplant MDT, Vasculitis/GN MDT.

Management:
Services operate under the following structure:

• Clinical Director Dr Shahed Ahmed
• Head of Operations Kate Brizell
• Associate director of Nursing Tracey Cullen

Medical Staffing
We have 22 Consultants currently working within the Nephrology team:

• Dr Shahed Ahmed
• Dr Asheesh Sharma
• Dr Jay Hiremath
• Dr Anirudh Rao
• Dr Azri Nache
• Dr Christopher Goldsmith
• Dr John Alexander
• Dr Hannah Sammut
• Dr Harsha Wodeyar
• Dr Mark Devonald
• Dr Matthew Howse
• Dr Michael Schulz
• Dr Olivia Worthington
• Dr Philip Evans
• Dr Rema Saxena
• Dr Chukwuma Chukwu
• Dr Neil Bailey
• Dr Abraham Abraham
• Dr Bhavna Pandya
• Dr Cecilia Chow
• Dr Janice Harper
• Dr Christopher Wong

Job plan:

• The appointee, together with his or her colleagues, will have a commitment to the provision of general nephrology, specialist nephrology and acute medical services.
• The timetable is based on a 10 - 11PA job plan including 1.5 core SPA (example 8 DCC + 1.5 Core SPA + 0.5 educational SPA)
• The fixed clinical sessions will include a dialysis clinic, general nephrology clinic, speciality clinics which will be agreed with the post holder after appointment to reflect their specialist interests and service requirements.
• The on-call commitment is 1:20 on pro rota basis. The hot blocks on the wards occur on weeks 1,2, 11 and 12 in a 20-week cycle.
• Any SPA activity in the job plan is designed to reflect time required for audit, mortality reviews, educational supervision, appraisal, and revalidation activity. This will be agreed with the post holder after appointment to reflect their specialist interests and service requirements. Additional DCC PAs and SPAs may be available by mutual consent to meet departmental or organisational requirements. The job plan will be reviewed six months after appointment and annually thereafter. Teaching and supervision of trainees will be an essential role of the post holder. Level 2 training will be provided for the appointee to be an Educational / Clinical Supervisor if they have not already obtained such training.
• The appointee is expected to attend and proactively commit to ongoing improvements in Nephrology & transplant MDT meetings, Renal Biopsy meetings, Clinical Directorate and Governance meetings.
• To receive acute referrals from Merseyside and Cheshire while on-call as part of the on-call consultant rota.
• The post holder would be expected to actively take part in audit, teaching and research. The Unit has contributed to the Renal Registry since 2002.
• It is envisaged that the post holder would provide Consultant level nephrology cover for the Regional Renal Transplant Unit whilst on-call and support any future developments in the working patterns with the transplant team.
• The post holder will have continuing responsibility for the care of patients in his or her charge and for the proper functioning of the service.
• It is expected that the job involves educational and clinical supervision of junior doctors, specialist nurses and teaching commitments to medical students from University of Liverpool.
• The post holder will help in delivering directorate goals related to financial, clinical governance and QEP. Post holder will be subject to performance management through service line reporting.

At the Royal Liverpool University Hospital there are regular specialist and inter-disciplinary meetings including a weekly MDT radiology meeting, a bimonthly renal biopsy meeting. There is a regular lunchtime meeting and a Grand Round, which is open to staff of all specialties. There is a state-of-the-art education centre on site with excellent resources and personnel.

Job Plan & Timetable (While not on ward hot blocks and on call):
Hot blocks (Ward cover and on-call) occur on week 1, 2, 11 and 12 in a 20-week cycle and attract 3.3 PA .

This timetable is an example but may be subject to change and negotiable once appointed.

Monday
Speciality Clinic
Admin

Tuesday
Telephone/Virtual clinic
SPA

Wednesday
Dialysis clinic
Gen Neph Clinic (outreach)

Thursday
Admin
SPA

Friday
Speciality Clinic
Nephrology MDTs. Mortality meeting, Governance meeting/consultant meeting

Please see attached Job Description for full details

Person Specification
Qualifications and Eligibility
Essential

• MB ChB or equivalent medical qualification
• MRCP (UK) or equivalent
• CCT in acute medicine or GIM (General Internal Medicine) (or within 6 months)
• Eligible for full registration with the GMC at time of appointment

Desirable

• Additional post-graduate qualifications

Clinical Skills
Essential

• Clinical Knowledge & Expertise
• Appropriate knowledge base and ability to apply sound clinical judgement to problems
• Demonstrates the necessary range, depth and breadth of competencies specified in the acute and general medicine curriculum and applying to this post

Academic & Research Skills
Essential

• Research Skills: Demonstrates ability to undertake robust audit/research within team structure
• Teaching Skills: Demonstrates range of teaching techniques relevant to variety of curricula

Desirable

• Degrees, awards, presentations, publications
• Evidence of teaching and assessment skills

Personal Skills
Essential

• Communication Skills: Demonstrates clarity in written/spoken communication & capacity to adapt language as appropriate to the situation. Able to build rapport, listen, persuade & negotiate
• Problem Solving & Decision Making: Capacity to use logical/lateral thinking to solve problems/make decisions
• Managing Others & Team Involvement: Capacity to work effectively with others. Able to work in multi-professional teams & supervise junior medical staff
• Empathy & Sensitivity: Capacity to take in others' perspectives and treat others with understanding; sees patients as people
• Organisation & Planning: Capacity to manage/prioritise time and information effectively. Capacity to prioritise own workload. Basic IT skills
• Vigilance & Situational Awareness: Capacity to monitor developing situations and anticipate issues
• Coping with Pressure: Capacity to operate under pressure. Demonstrates initiative & resilience to cope with changing circumstances

Desirable

• Leadership/manage ment/QI qualifications

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).

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.

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.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.