Job overview

We are looking for a dynamic and motivated Band 7 Occupational Therapist to join our Acute Frailty Therapy Team.

We are a large group of Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Therapy Assistants with a passion for the care of frail and elderly patients.  We work closely with the larger Multidisciplinary Team to care for acutely unwell frail patients attending the hospital and through collaborative decision making with our colleagues we facilitate safe and rapid discharge from hospital. We are based in Queen’s Emergency Department, Frailty and Medical Same Day Emergency Care, Queen’s Frailty Unit and one inpatient ward in Queen’s Hospital.

As a Band 7 Occupational Therapist in a large and busy team you will be required to demonstrate strong leadership skills and be confident to work as an autonomous practitioner with a focus on early assessment and discharge planning with rapid and robust decision-making essential for efficient patient flow. You will be familiar with the assessment of patients with diverse presentations including complex physical, cognitive, and psychological health conditions within elderly and medical specialties.
The team is an integrated service with Physiotherapy, and you will be supported by Band 7 Occupational Therapists, a Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist, a Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist and a Band 8a Clinical Lead.  The team is very supportive and there are lots of opportunities to develop both clinical and non-clinical skills.

Main duties of the job

To provide specialist standard of Occupational Therapy service to patients within the acute elderly/medical service with a special focus on the Queen's Frailty Unit, Frailty RAFT (Ambulance Streaming Area), Medical Receiving Unit and Elderly Short Stay Unit, facilitating and maximising patient potential within the service boundaries using a holistic approach. 
 
To give highly specialist guidance, advice and education to other members of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) on matters relating to your specialist area. 

Provide leadership for your team (in conjunction with the Clinical Leads) in planning, coordinating, delivering and evaluating the Occupational Therapy service provided to patients within your area. 

To provide a lead role in teaching, supervising and appraising peers, Band 6, Band 5, Student Occupational Therapists and Generic Therapy Assistants 

To deputise in the absence of senior colleagues as required both within management and clinical areas. 

To contribute to the running and development of the service through the promotion, adaptation and development of policies, procedures and guidelines using evidence-based practise.

Undertake supervision, mentoring and performance development plans to promote clinical and professional effectiveness of self and others. This includes performance management, management of disciplinary issues in liaison with Therapy Manager.

Working for our organisation

We’re an organisation that is getting better and better and our improvements are driven by a determination to deliver care we’re proud of and our patients are happy with. 

They are benefitting from a new electronic patient record (we were the last acute trust in London to introduce one) and our maternity services have been rated good by the Care Quality Commission. 

We operate from two main sites – KGH in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford. We have two busy emergency departments with more than 346,000 people visiting them last year. We’re campaigning to secure the £35m we need to transform the A&E at Queen’s and get rid of corridor care. 

We’re proud of our regional Neurosciences Centre, Radiotherapy Centre and Hyper Acute Stroke Unit. We’re also part of the North East London Cancer Alliance. 

We run a Women’s Health Hub in Ilford; an Ageing Well Centre in Hornchurch; and Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC) at Barking Community Hospital and at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub. These CDCs are open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  

The majority of our 8,400 staff – who come from 146 different countries - live in the three diverse London boroughs we serve and are from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. Many can work flexibly and more than 400 of them are on our Ofsted accredited apprenticeship programmes. We’re proud to be a London Living Wage employer.