Medical Director

Post: Medical Director, Ashgate Hospice          Responsible to: Chief Executive

Pay Spine Grouping / Salary: As per BMA Guidance

Location: Ashgate Hospice                             Hours:   10.5 Programmed activities

Closing Date:  22nd January 2024                 Interviews: 2nd February 2024

Preferred Method of Application: CV, along with a brief covering letter to Matt Corbishley, Director of People, Engagement and Performance: matt.corbishley@ashgatehospice.org.uk

About the role

We are looking to appoint a dynamic medical leader to continue our legacy of amazing care and to help us meet our ambitions including growing and developing our research capabilities. The post holder will be employed by Chesterfield Royal Hospital but based at Ashgate Hospice where you will be supported by your clinical colleagues and the wider hospice team.

We have a medically led Inpatient Unit with 15 beds offering active treatments to patients in the palliative phase of their illness within a hospice setting, a large multi-disciplinary community team providing care to patients at home, and a thriving Day Services offer complemented by a suite of psychosocial therapies. This year, we launched one of the first Virtual Palliative Care Wards in the UK. This service allows us to deliver care to our patients in new and innovative ways to enable incredibly sick and unstable patients to stay in their own homes if this is their choice. It also avoids unnecessary admissions for treatments such as paracentesis. The Virtual Ward team has cared for over 100 patients since April.

As an independent hospice, we have the ability to respond rapidly and creatively to the needs of the community. We deliver outstanding education for our GP and SpR colleagues 3 to train at the hospice and also for our community, and we receive excellent feedback from them. We aim to up-skill our colleagues across the local health and care system to provide excellent palliative care for patients who otherwise do not need the specialist support of the hospice.

We are passionate and ambitious about what we do and the people who need our care. We are investing in our medical capacity to ensure that we can provide high-quality, evidence-based care and education that meets the evolving needs of our patients and their families, and to make Ashgate a great place to work.

Teaching and research have always been fundamental to the hospice movement. We have long been active in medical and clinical education in Derbyshire and now we are beginning to develop our partnerships with other hospices and academic bodies to support our evolution towards becoming a research active hospice. We are looking for a Medical Director who will play a vital role not only in the medical leadership of Ashgate, but in our work with local ICB partners to help us to achieve our vision of a good death for everyone.

What We Offer

Ashgate supports the requirements for continuing professional development (CPD) as laid down by the Royal College of Physicians and is committed to providing time and support for these activities.

Ashgate is committed to and has the required arrangements in place with Chesterfield Royal Hospital in line with the requirements of the Royal College of Physicians, to ensure that all doctors have both an annual appraisal with a trained appraiser and support going through the revalidation process. There is full clinical administration support and an established IT infrastructure including an electronic patient record (EPR) system.

The incumbent will be supported by the Leadership team and will be encouraged to access specific mentorship and clinical supervision within the organisation or from outside sources such as the Association of Palliative Medicine and Hospice UK.

Flexibility will be shown by the medical staff with the need for TOIL in the circumstances where a night or weekend has been unduly onerous working within the parameters of BMA compensatory rest guidance. This is decided and managed amongst the Consultants ad hoc. It will be exceptional for this to occur more than a couple of times a year.

What else we offer:

Purposeful Work: Joining Ashgate Hospice means becoming part of a close-knit family that puts patient well-being and comfort above all else. At Ashgate, we are privileged to be able to share some truly special moments with our patients and their families, including events from weddings to birthday parties.

Collaborative and Supportive Environment: We foster a supportive and inclusive work environment that values diversity and teamwork. We pride ourselves on ensuring that all our teams have the time and support to deliver the very highest quality of care to the patients and families we look after. We know this is often a challenge in many settings, but we believe strongly that we only have one chance to get it right for our patients and their loved ones.

Emphasis on Employee Wellbeing: Our wellbeing lead provides a dedicated service to all our staff and volunteers, offering monthly activities and initiatives to support and improve your own wellbeing and lifestyle.

What You'll Do

This is an expanded post which is ideally suited to an established Consultant who wishes to extend their leadership and strategic vision as a Medical Director in an outstanding and forward-looking clinical environment. The Medical Director will have a strong commitment to multidisciplinary leadership and to developing Ashgate’s profile and portfolio in palliative and end of life care education and research. The post is predominantly community based for clinical activity and the role will provide a senior cross-cover with other elements of Ashgate’s medical services to cover sickness and absence.

Flexibility will be built into the post and its responsibilities to accommodate the skills and aspirations of the right candidate. The key characteristics of the role focus on leadership, research, education and clinical care by maintaining the complement of the senior clinicians to provide an appropriate share of Consultant’s frontline duties.

These include inpatient work sharing cover for 15 Inpatient Unit beds with MDT meetings and rounds, community team weekly MDT meetings, and new or follow-up community visits including travel, phone work, advice and support to multi-professional generalists and specialist clinicians. Consultants support between seven to eight patients per session per week.

As Medical Director, the main responsibilities include:

• · Attend and review patients, meeting relatives and communicating care planning
• · Support development of Ashgate Hospice’s research capabilities
• · Provide medical leadership
• · Attend appropriate medical and MDT meetings
• · Maintain CPD and meet criteria for GMC
• · Liaise with hospital services, support GPs and Primary Care in clinical management
• · Work with the local ICB (Joined Up Care Derbyshire) to develop strategic direction for all palliative care services
• · Supporting medical education speciality training and multi professional training
• · Provide appropriate line management of all consultant and speciality doctors to ensure they meet their college’s approval for CPD and revalidation
• · Work with senior clinical leader of the hospice to facilitate continuous improvement
• · Contribute to quality assurance, governance structures an processes

To get full details about the role please read the attached recruitment pack and call the recruiting manager for an informal chat or to come and visit our recently refurbished In-patient unit. We welcome applicants to look around our wonderful facilities and gardens. We also have a fabulous discounted onsite café for staff!

About Ashgate

Ashgate Hospice is a registered charity that provides compassionate, specialist palliative and end of life care, free of charge, to patients with a life-limiting illness and their families across North Derbyshire. Our values are at the heart of everything we do at Ashgate. They are grounded in our commitment to being the best we can be for our patients and the people who are important to them, and for each other. We are compassionate. We are a team. We are respectful, open and inclusive.

We are proud of our Outstanding CQC rating and our recent RCN award-winning in-patient unit and have ambitious plans for high quality and sustainable patient care.

We’re committed to providing a happy, safe and supportive environment for all our people which is why nearly 4 out of 5 of our staff would recommend us as a place to work. We recognise the need to support our employees’ well-being including their work-life balance which is why we are open to, and encourage flexible working arrangements, including job-sharing.

As a valued member of the team, you will have a wide range of training and development available to support your own personal, professional development, opening doors to new career pathways.

Please visit our website and social media accounts or listen to our podcast “The Life and Death Podcast” to get a feel for what it is like to be part of the Ashgate team and gain an understanding of the people we support.

What our Staff say

Take a look at our in-patient unit and what staff who work at Ashgate say about working for us. o https://ashgatehospice.org.uk/help-and-support/inpatient-unit/ o https://ashgatehospice.org.uk/2021/10/08/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-hospice-ipu-nurse/ o https://youtu.be/i_aPrNkVn3E

To Apply

If you would like to apply for the position of Medical Director, please send your CV, along with a brief covering letter to Matt Corbishley, Director of People, Engagement and Performance: matt.corbishley@ashgatehospice.org.uk

Please explain your interest in the role, in Ashgate Hospice and how your skills and experience reflect the person specification for the role.

Any candidate who identifies themselves as disabled will be shortlisted if they meet the essential criteria for the role. Essential criteria can be found in the job description and person specification for the role. If you require any accessibility adjustments, please contact a member of the HR team at hr@ashgatehospice.org.uk or by calling 01246 568 801.