Locum Consultant in Stroke Medicine

The appointee will join the Stroke department in the delivery of clinical excellence within the Hyper‑acute and acute service provided at our Acute Stroke Centre. This is a cross site post for Bedfordshire Hospitals NHSFT but is primarily based at Luton Hospital.

This post, along with existing Stroke Physicians would be expected to support the 24/7 stroke thrombolysis service. They will be expected to do 1 TIA clinic and 1 Follow‑Up Clinic per week, in addition to caring for inpatients. There is a dedicated thrombolysis trained stroke registrar on call rota with stroke specialist nurse who would assess stroke patients out of hours and liaise with on‑call stroke consultant.

Tele‑radiology service is provided for consultants out of hours to access scans. The out of hours thrombolysis rota is 1:8 based  weekend HASU ward rota cover is 1:8 based at the Luton site.

In addition to the fixed clinical sessions necessary to provide continuous cover in the clinical area, flexible sessions that include time for teaching, administration, and management will be included in the Job plan. The department enjoys a very close working relationship and all clinical issues are openly discussed at formal and informal meetings.

The appointee will be encouraged and supported in developing their own specialty interests in stroke medicine within the overall job plan. The appointee will also have the opportunity to develop into a leadership role within the stroke service.

The post holder will provide consultant‑led care for patients across Stroke services, delivering high-quality inpatient and outpatient care with a focus on early consultant review, timely decision‑making and excellent patient outcomes.

The role includes participation in a 24/7 stroke thrombolysis service, TIA clinics and the management of adult stroke and TIA patients across the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit (HASU), acute and rehabilitation pathways. The consultant will undertake daily ward rounds, participate in multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings and work collaboratively with the Emergency Department, Acute Assessment Units and Critical Care to optimise patient care.

Although primarily based at Bedford Hospital, the post holder will support services across both Bedford and Luton sites, including the HASU at Luton and the Stroke Unit at Bedford.

The successful candidate will actively contribute to the development of Stroke services, supporting new initiatives, service improvement, governance, audit and research to meet national quality standards.

The post holder will contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate education, supervise junior medical staff, participate in appraisal, continuing professional development (CPD) and revalidation, and work collaboratively with consultant colleagues to deliver a responsive, high‑quality Stroke service that adapts to changing clinical and organisational needs.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A& E, Obstetrics‑led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff.

As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology.

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

A 10 PA week consists of 8.5 PAs direct clinical care and 1.5 PAs for Supporting Professional Activity (SPA).

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