Consultant in Geriatric & General Medicine

Job Overview

Offers are open for two enthusiastic and passionate candidates to join the department of Older People's Medicine at Ipswich Hospital, part of East Suffolk and North East Essex foundation trust as a substantive consultant. Full time, part time and flexible working opportunities will be considered. It is an exciting time to join the trust as we plan the roll out of Epic - our new electronic health record in 2025.

This forward thinking and innovative department is developing services that begin in the heart of the community. We care for patients in their home using the virtual ward, and through the whole span of their journey within the acute hospital - from specialist assessment in the emergency department to seamless specialist care in our frailty assessment base and our short stay frailty unit.

There has never been a more exciting time to join our team and work with us to develop services to meet the needs of our older population, enabling them to age well and with dignity in an ever-changing landscape. We don't believe in always doing the same things and we welcome individuals who can bring new ideas and thoughts to the table.

The successful candidate will share a complex Older Peoples Ward with a colleague and will be responsible for 14 inpatients. This is supported by a team of juniors - middle grade, CMT and FY1 doctors. Ward cover will involve a daily consultant led board round, regular ward rounds and time for relatives meetings as well as monthly clinical governance meetings. The post holder will be expected to provide appropriate clinical leadership to the progressive, innovative multidisciplinary ward team, in conjunction with the other consultant and ward sister.

This post includes 2 Frailty Assessment sessions per week, this involves seeing up to 4 patients with the specialist nursing, pharmacy and therapy team in the Frailty Assessment Base for a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, we have access to dietitian, community therapy and REACT. There will be a share of covering the "hot phone" this is a mobile phone which enables any GP or community therapist to phone for advice, currently this is 2 - 8 calls a day and is part of the FAB session.

The number of FAB session per week can be altered to accommodate the sub‑specialty interest of any successful candidate. For example - Movement Disorder, Falls, Surgical Liaison, Interface Geriatrics and Frailty.

The other aspect of the job will be joining a consultant colleague covering 14 patients on one of our Older People's Wards (complex short stay frailty unit), supported by an SpR, CMT and two FY1 doctors.

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes. We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here -

Our Enhanced Welcome package includes an additional £12,000 and relocation costs to thank you for choosing to work at our trust and your new journey with ESNEFT.