Job overview

An exciting and rare opportunity has arisen for the Community Respiratory Service to expand.

The Respiratory Service is a nurse-led team that provides an extensive respiratory service across East Suffolk offering a specialist service to patients and other health care professionals.

Respiratory care and oxygen prescribing for adults is brought closer to the patient and an individualised, holistic approach is developed.

The service has three strands:

Admission Avoidance: Preventing admission to acute settings by assessing the patient with an acute exacerbation at home, initiating a management plan and supporting the patient until they are medically improved.

Virtual Ward: It will enable early discharge from Ipswich Hospital (and other local Acute Trusts) for those admitted with COPD and other respiratory conditions by supporting them at home with Multi-disciplinary support until their health has stabilised.

Oxygen Service: Ensuring that home oxygen is provided in accordance with national policies and guidelines, assessing for initial oxygen need and maintaining on-going review.

Patients can be assessed in a variety of settings, although this tends to be in their own home.

Main duties of the job

You will have the opportunity to further develop your knowledge and skills in respiratory care and home oxygen management in a supportive environment which maintains the patient at the centre of their care.

As part of the admission avoidance service you will provide follow-up care as part of an intermediate care package to patients who are referred to the service by their GP/HCP with an exacerbation of COPD. These patients will have a previously confirmed diagnosis of COPD.

Patients admitted to the Ipswich Hospital who fulfil the criteria will be provided with assisted discharge. You will provide a specialist service offering expert knowledge and advice, assessing, planning and implementing care for respiratory patients. These patients will form part of the respiratory virtual ward.

Working for our organisation

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes. 

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff. 

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options. 

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services. 

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.   

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients. 

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.   

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A