Consultant in Cardiology

Royal Alexandra Hospital

Reference: 115836

This is an exciting opportunity to join a team of committed, passionate consultants providing a comprehensive patient centred Cardiology Service.

This post has an on call commitment including 1 weekend in 8. The Clyde sector is committed to developing a round the clock cardiology on call service and it is expected that the successful applicant will contribute to this when it starts.

The Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) is situated in Paisley and provides an extensive range of acute health services to Renfrewshire and parts of East Renfrewshire. The town of Paisley is situated less than 10 miles west of Glasgow. It is an easy commute from the popular areas to live of Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow’s West End and East Dunbartonshire.

The hospital opened in 1986 and has a current bed complement of 968. The hospital provides a wide range of District General Hospital specialties with excellent support facilities. The hospital has a first class modern radiology department and services. All departments participate in undergraduate teaching and there is an active postgraduate educational programme. The hospital enjoys an enviable reputation for undergraduate teaching and is highly popular with training grades. There is also a good medical library service.

The Cardiology Service in Clyde Sector delivers its in-patient services on 3 hospital sites. There are no plans for this post to carry out any in-patient cardiology duties at the VOL or IRH sites (Consultants taking part in the Medical Receiving Rota do go to the VOL at weekends).

The successful applicant will have a key role supporting the implementation of novel working ideas aiming to avoid admissions and reduce length of stay. This may include the reintroduction of ambulatory care post COVID-19 pandemic and supporting our excellent heart failure liaison service.
The successful candidate will provide a full range of consultant services as agreed with colleagues including in-patient management of patients admitted to the Medical Wards and Coronary Care Unit. It is our aim to accommodate the successful candidate’s chosen sub-specialty. There are two outpatient clinics per week per consultant. Outpatient clinic commitment will be at Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley and the Vale of Leven Hospital, Alexandria.

The successful candidate will undertake consultant duties for CCU on a 7-weekly cycle. This includes twice daily ward-rounds in CCU Monday-Friday, a daily pick up of cardiology patients in medical receiving and seeing cardiology referrals in the hospital. The cardiologist of the week will be available for telephone consultation and support for the duty-physician at the Vale of Leven.

1 weekend in 8 the successful candidate will participate in the weekend cardiology rota. This is a role shared with colleagues from Inverclyde Royal Hospital and involves being on-site in the Royal Alexandra Hospital 0800-1600 Saturday and Sunday. The weekend cardiologist is available for telephone support for Inverclyde Royal Hospital and the Vale of Leven Hospital.

The medium term plan is to develop a separate on call commitment for Cardiology.

We have an excellent Cardiac Physiology department providing a full range of echo services including trans-oesophageal echo and stress echo; an advance ambulatory monitoring service including loop recorder insertion and advanced device follow up; and a busy brady-pacing service with the ability to implant at very short notice. The successful applicant is expected to help with clinical problems generated in the department.

We have a developed heart failure liaison service with heart failure nurses providing optimisation of therapy and follow up of our large heart failure cohort. They meet new patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction on the ward and provide early supportive discharge for new patients and also for patients admitted with a decompensation of their heart failure or other conditions necessitating a change in therapy. The post-holder will assist with providing support for this highly skilled group.

Before the COVID pandemic we provided ambulatory care in cardiology, for example, chest pain assessment, outpatient parenteral diuretic for admission avoidance, outpatient antibiotic therapy for endocarditis. This had to close during the pandemic for infection control purposes, but we are in the process of redeveloping this. We have recruited 3 new trainee cardiology ANPs to support our excellent existing nurse specialists and the successful candidate will provide support in developing ambulatory services.

NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society.

To apply, please click the Apply button.

Interview Date: 11th November 2022.

Closing Date: 24th October 2022.