Job overview

We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic, motivated, forward thinking Consultant in Palliative Medicine to an innovative community post in Bolton. The post holder will be joining the service at a time of exciting change and development to improve the provision of palliative care to the residents of Bolton. 

The post holder will be working predominantly in the community setting, although the service is integrated, so it also provides hospital based services. This includes a proactive emergency department service  by two senior clinical practitioners (8a), to identify and manage unmet palliative care needs and identify people who are sick enough to die in order to start advance care planning. This service has been shown to reduce admissions, with a low re-admission rate, and reduced length of stay.

The post holder will work alongside a consultant colleague in the community setting, to support the newly appointed community senior clinical practitioners and a specialty doctor. The service is developing to deliver a 7 day rapid response service and ‘Hospital at Home’ virtual ward provided by the palliative care senior clinical practitioners, alongside advanced clinical practitioners in the Admissions Avoidance Team and other specialist teams running virtual wards. The post holder will need to provide leadership and service development support in setting up these services .

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be joining the service at a time of exciting change and development to improve the provision of palliative and end of life care to the residents of Bolton. 

The post holder will be working predominantly in the community setting, although the service is integrated, so it also provides hospital based services as well. This includes a proactive emergency department service provided by two senior clinical practitioners (8a), to identify and manage unmet palliative care needs and identify people who are sick enough to die in order to start advance care planning. 

The post holder will work alongside a consultant colleague in the community setting, to support the community senior clinical practitioners (8a), a team of band 6 and 7 specialist nurses and a specialty doctor. The service also supports the placement of an FY2 trainee, who is supernumerary, and an ad hoc placement for an StR in Palliative Medicine. The service also has a specialist team of physiotherapists and occupational therapists and the team do joint visits when necessary.

The service is developing to deliver a 7 day rapid response service and ‘Hospital at Home’ virtual ward provided by the senior clinical practitioners.

The on-call requirements  are yet to be determined, as weekend working to support the new service needs to be piloted, there is a requirement to be flexible and engage with these pilots. The current consultants provide 1:5 frequency 2nd on-call cover to Bolton Hospice

Working for our organisation

We have a long and proud history of caring for generations of local people and can trace our roots all the way back to 1814 with the first hospital in Bolton – the Bolton Dispensary in the town centre.

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust was formed in 2008 and, in 2011, we became an integrated provider with community health services joining the trust. Covering a catchment area that also incorporates parts of Bury, Wigan and Salford, we deliver hospital and community based services from the Royal Bolton Hospital in Farnworth and from 20 health centres across Bolton, to a catchment population of 310,000+ people. 

The Royal Bolton Hospital is a major hub within Greater Manchester for women’s and children’s services and is the busiest single ambulance-receiving site in Greater Manchester.  We’re structured in four clinical divisions – Community Services, Families and Diagnostics, Medicine, and Surgery and are led by a Board of Directors. As an NHS Foundation Trust we’re accountable to our members and have a Council of Governors to represent the views of patients, public, staff and partners.   

Buildings, names and models of care have changed over the centuries, but one thing has remained constant and is prevalent among our 6,718 staff members: the enduring commitment to providing the best health and care for the people of Bolton.