Job summary
- Main area
- Hand Therapy
- Grade
- Band 7
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (As above)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 196-LIS9549
- Employer
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Guys and St Thomas' Hospital
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £54,320 - £60,981 p.a inclusive of HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 26/05/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 06/06/2025
Employer heading

Senior Specialist Hand Therapist
Band 7
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
12 month maternity leave cover: Senior Specialist Hand Therapist (band 7) Full time (37.5 hours).
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a hand therapist (either Occupational Therapist or Physiotherapist) to join our well-established and dynamic multi-disciplinary team to provide maternity leave cover. We seek an individual who is autonomous, forward thinking and enthusiastic.
We are a large team of thirty therapists supported by three assistants. We are a busy service supporting our plastic and orthopaedic hand surgery colleagues with elective and trauma activity as well as managing patients referred from rheumatology and the community.
This position offers an important opportunity and challenging career move for you to advance your clinical and leadership skills. Your role will include supporting junior staff, delivering education and assisting with quality improvement and research. We pride ourselves in supporting our team through education, training and development opportunities.
Does this sound like the challenge that you are looking for?
Main duties of the job
You will manage a clinical caseload of non-surgically and surgically managed patients with traumatic and elective hand and upper limb injuries. Additionally you have the opportunity to assess and manage patients with non-surgical conditions referred from the community.
As a senior specialist hand therapist you will be involved with triaging referrals, formulating and discussing management plans with therapy and surgical colleagues and assisting with problem solving on an ad hoc basis. As such we are looking for someone with excellent communication skills that can be flexible and responsive and who is a strong team player.
Working for our organisation
We are a large, busy but very supportive team that work across the Guys and St Thomas' hospital sites. We strive to provide an excellent service that we would be happy to recommend to our friends and family and put patient care at the heart of everything that we do.
Hand Therapy is part of the Therapies Directorate with a supportive and progressive management structure. Departmental objectives are founded upon the core principles of the clinical governance framework and Trust Core Values. Research activity, robust evidence based practice and national guidelines drive forward our vision and direct service delivery.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Performs an advanced musculo-skeletal assessment of plastic surgery/hand patients including those with highly complex presentations and from this formulates a diagnosis and treatment plan, which is carried out as an autonomous practitioner.
- Takes a lead role in the supervision, teaching and appraisal of senior, junior and assistant physiotherapists / occupational therapists, physiotherapy /OT students (including those at Masters level) and other members of the multi disciplinary team.
- As team leader, is responsible for operational management and overall development of designated team especially in regard to all aspects of clinical governance and deputises for service manager as required.
- Supervises, initiates and participates in evidence based projects and is responsible for implementing changes within designated team/area and setting and monitoring standards of practice
Person specification
Skills
Essential criteria
- Skilled in assessment and management of surgically and non-surgically managed Hand Therapy patients
- Skilled in the fabrication of splints for a broad range of conditions
- Skilled in exercise prescription for upper limb conditions
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of supervising and managing junior hand therapy staff
- Experience of supervising hand therapy students
- Experience of working in pressured environment with strict time management
- Involvement in research process in subject relevant to HT
- Involvement in Hand Therapy service development
- Involvement in departmental audit (ideally HT)
Desirable criteria
- Attendance of management courses in a clinical setting
- Attendance of clinical educator courses
- Published research within HT/upper limb field
- Led service development or audit within HT/upper limb service
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- BSc Physiotherapy/BSc Occupational Therapy (or equivalent)
- Post Registration Hand Therapy/Upper Limb MSK CPD
- HCPC Registration
Desirable criteria
- BAHT Membership
- MSc level study in relevant area
- Accredited Hand Therapist
- Post registration CPD in splinting or exercise prescription within Hand/Upper Limb
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Hannah Bell
- Job title
- Clinical Lead Hand Therapist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 02071884159
- Additional information
Please contact Hannah Bell or Sarah Hughes ([email protected]) for further information
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