Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The employer is University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, with the post description and responsibilities below being based on a whole-time appointment. The post holder(s) will work with senior and junior specialty colleagues to support a comprehensive in and outpatient service for patients with respiratory disease, interacting with colleagues both within and outside the department during the care of patients. The post holder(s) will be managerially responsible to the Service Line Clinical Directors (Dr Gemma Hayes, Dr Tom Nicholason and Dr Cyrus Daneshvar) and Manager (Mr Martyn Blackwell), and professionally responsible to the Medical Director (Dr Mark Hamilton).

This Sleep Fellowship post is based within the Chest Clinic at University Hospitals Plymouth and sits within the wider Respiratory and General Internal Medicine department. It is open to any suitably qualified applicant, though it is particularly well-suited to individuals with prior experience in respiratory medicine who are looking to develop a long-term career in this specialty, with a focus on sleep medicine.

The successful candidate will be responsible for delivering high-quality care to patients across both inpatient and outpatient settings, including dedicated sessions in the Chest Clinic. Working closely with a team of middle-grade (registrar-level) colleagues and under direct consultant supervision, the post holder will also support junior doctors (IMT and FY levels) and specialist nurses within the department.

This role offers comprehensive exposure to the full spectrum of general respiratory and sub-specialty services, including procedural work such as bronchoscopy and pleural interventions. The fellowship provides a unique opportunity to gain in-depth experience in sleep-disordered breathing and other aspects of sleep medicine, contributing to both clinical service delivery and potential service development initiatives.

The post holder(s) will also be offered opportunities to become involved in the teaching, continuing medical education, and audit activities of the department. Involvement in existing research projects will be encouraged according to the post holder’s interests and other commitments, whilst the post holder(s) will also be offered the opportunity to contribute to undergraduate teaching for the University of Plymouth (Peninsula) School of Medicine and Dentistry. 

There is an expectation that the post holder(s) will undertake some form of weekend, evening, and/or overnight working on site as part of their on-call duties. These will include regular commitments to the acute unselected medical take and specialty inpatient wards, to be agreed with the post holder(s) at the time of appointment and reviewed on a regular (no less than annually) basis as required. The balance of elective, procedural, in- and outpatient work will be dependent on the skill set, interests, and/or training needs of any successful applicant(s) and subject to regular review (no less than annually) between the post holder(s) and the Service Line Clinical Director for the department in order to meet local changing needs. Flexible and less than full time working is fully supported and will be appropriately accommodated by the department, with precise arrangements to be agreed by any successful applicant(s) and the Service Line Clinical Director at the time of appointment with regular review thereafter as required.