Job summary
Royal Papworth Hospital is the UK's leading specialist heart and lung hospital, with an international reputation for clinical excellence, research and innovation. Based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, we are rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission and are in Segment 1 of the NHS Oversight Framework.

We are now seeking an exceptional Chief Medical Officer to join our Board and provide leadership to a highly skilled and internationally respected medical workforce.

Our consultants are recognised experts in their fields, and the breadth of their clinical and academic achievements underpins Royal Papworth's success. The next CMO will need to command their respect, build effective relationships across specialties and bring clarity to professional expectations and accountability. This will require a leader who combines clinical credibility with the judgement, confidence and interpersonal skills to challenge established practices, address difficult issues and bring people together.

Working closely with the Chief Executive and executive colleagues, you will help deliver our new strategy for 2026--2031, maintaining our reputation for excellent clinical care while supporting the development of our services, our people and our partnerships. You will play a central role in clinical quality and safety, medical workforce development, research and innovation, and the changes needed to ensure Royal Papworth continues to thrive in a changing NHS.

Main duties of the job
This includes extending the reach of our specialist expertise beyond the hospital, strengthening relationships across the region and supporting closer clinical collaboration with our partners, including the introduction of a shared electronic patient record with Cambridge University Hospitals.

We are looking for an experienced medical leader with a record of leading senior clinicians, managing complex change and improving clinical services. You will understand the demands of working with highly specialised medical professionals and have the authority to make difficult decisions while maintaining trust and respect.

Although an understanding of specialist hospital services will be important, we are interested in candidates from a range of clinical backgrounds. Above all, we are looking for someone with the leadership experience, ability and ambition to contribute at Board level and support our medical workforce to deliver its best for patients.

Royal Papworth is committed to developing an inclusive and representative leadership team. We particularly encourage applications from women, those from ethnic minority backgrounds and others with protected characteristics who are currently underrepresented in our Executive Team.

Application
Apply through our website. For further information or a confidential discussion, please contact Thomas Patterson, Managing Director, Alumni Global, at thomas.patterson@alumniglobal.com or on 07970 339 151.

About us
Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is the UK's leading heart and lung hospital, delivering care to more than 50,000 patients a year in its new state-of-the-art hospital in Cambridge. We perform the most heart and/or lung transplants in the UK and carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant in 1979. It also offers emergency heart attack treatment, sleep centre care and is one of just five centres nationally for those in severe respiratory failure.

Based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe the Trust is at the heart of treatments of the future. Royal Papworth became the first hospital trust in the country to be rated outstanding in all five areas assessed by the Care Quality Commission - a rating it still holds today. The Trust holds its values of compassion, excellence & collaboration at its core, and all colleagues joining the team are expected to uphold these in their day-to-day roles & interactions. Royal Papworth is proud of its diverse workforce and encourages people to embrace their individuality.

Person Specification
Qualifications (Essential)

• Current GMC registration.
• Higher Medical Degree/Qualification.
• Evidence of professional and personal development within the last two years.
• Evidence of leadership development through a structured development programme or equivalent experience.

Experience (Essential)

• Proven record in senior medical leadership.
• Experience of working at a leadership level within a health system.
• Have knowledge and experience of clinical governance.
• Experience of productive cross professional working.
• Detailed understanding of current clinical and other issues relating to acute health care, in particular, cardiothoracic services.
• Clear understanding of the NHS systems and agenda and strategic issues in health care and ability to interpret these in a given setting.
• Have strategic and business planning experience and experience of managing budgets.
• Have experience of implementing national and statutory requirements.
• Evidence of development of people and processes to promote organisational learning and valuing diversity.
• Have significant organisation change experience/managing difficult and complex change.
• Be knowledgeable about revalidation.
• Have a good understanding of the health and social care management environment and of roles and responsibilities within it.
• Have a good understanding of national targets and of performance management methodology.

Additional Criteria (Essential)

• Please provide evidence of your commitment to uphold the Trust's values: Compassion, Excellence, Collaboration.
• Intellectual capacity to grasp and communicate complex issues to a range of audiences (from Junior Nurses to Board to Consultants/ global experts).
• Ability to understand, value and enhance the diversity and feelings of belonging amongst staff.
• Ability to leverage Royal Papworth's expertise and to support the development of the ICS.

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.

Employer details
Employer name: Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Trustwide, Papworth Road, Cambridge Bio Medical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0AY, United Kingdom

Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust values difference and welcomes all applications irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion & belief, sex and sexual orientation. Providing they meet the minimum post criteria, applicants with disabilities will be offered an interview.