Detailed job description and main responsibilities

JOB DESCRIPTION FOR SPECIALIST SENIOR CLINICAL FELLOW IN BRACHYTHERAPY

Title of Post:           Specialist Senior Clinical Fellow in Brachytherapy

Nature of Appointment:   Full Time Post (12 Months Fixed Term)

 Responsible To:                Clinical Lead Dr Asad Qureshi

 Accountable To:                Clinical Director Dr Hartmut Kristeleit

 Employing Authority:       Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Specific purpose of the post:

This post is designed to provide sub-specialty training in Brachytherapy and would suit a doctor with 7 complete years of postgraduate training (equivalent if overseas) or post CCT wanting further exposure to Brachytherapy (LDR and HDR) techniques prior to seeking a consultant clinical oncologist post. The current provision of brachytherapy services includes HDR brachytherapy for gynaecological, prostate, oesophageal, rectal and skin cancers as well as LDR seed brachytherapy for prostate cancer. We plan to expand the HDR brachytherapy service to include lung, head and neck and bladder cancers in a phased manner. This post offers excellent training and research opportunities.

The candidate will be expected to carry out research and audit projects, service development and will be encouraged to present the results at national and international meetings.

Overall purpose of the post:

• To assist in the provision of high quality care for patients with a range of malignancies, where brachytherapy is a modality of treatment.
• To contribute to the ongoing development of the brachytherapy service.
• To contribute to brachytherapy service delivery.
• To contribute to the development, maintenance and update of brachytherapy clinical protocols.
• To participate in clinical and other service activities with the object of ensuring a high standard of patient care and to contribute to service developments. 
• To participate in undergraduate and postgraduate education and training programmes.
• To participate in research and audit activities within the Department and to establish and maintain the database of patients treated with brachytherapy

Timetable: Provisional and subject to change as different tumour sites go live

The post holder will be expected to see patients planned for brachytherapy in clinic.

The post holder is required to follow Trust policies and procedures that are regularly updated including:

Employing Authority and main place of employment:

This post will be based at the Guy’s Site but may include working at any additional or different location owned or served by the trust, either on an on-going or temporary basis according to the demands of the service. This includes sites across Guy’s and St Thomas’s or Queen Mary’s Sidcup, King’s College Hospital, Princess Royal Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham or other hospitals within our cancer service.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.

We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.

We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and – as part of King’s Health Partners – we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have one of the National Institute for Health Research’s  biomedical research centres, established with King’s College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities.

 We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs.

We strive to recruit and retain the best staff as the dedication and skills of our employees lie at the heart of our organisation and ensure that our services are of the highest quality, safe and focused on our patients.

Organisational Values:

Our values help us to define and develop our culture, what we do and how we do it.  It is important that you understand and reflect these values throughout your employment with the Trust. 

The post holder will:

·         Put patients first

·         Take pride in what they do

·         Respect others

·         Strive to be the best

·         Act with integrity

Our values and behaviours framework describes what it means for every one of us in the Trust to put our values into action. The framework can be found on our Trust careers pages and GTIntranet.

Guy’s Cancer Centre

Guy's and St Thomas' is a Joint Cancer Centre with King's College Hospital that offers a full range of services for the diagnosis and treatment of all adult cancers. Patients from across south east London attends for treatment which is not available at their local hospital. The Trust's cancer services will be provided at both Guy's and St Thomas' sites as well as the new site at Queen Mary’s, Kent.

 Over the next five years, GSTT will help establish an internationally renowned Comprehensive Cancer Centre by:

·         providing the very best cancer service to patients by combining first class clinical care with ground-breaking research and high quality training and development across the AHSC

·         improving outcomes and experience for cancer patients with complex needs through earlier diagnosis, effective treatment and the provision of high quality survivorship care

·         embedding whole person care across the cancer pathway and strive to bring treatment programmes closer to home

·         developing and test new biological and cellular therapies in a range of cancers

·         opening a new £160 million cancer centre at Guy’s Hospital and a sister centre in Sidcup, which will transform the delivery of cancer services, so patients will receive the right treatment at the right time, delivered within fewer visits and tailored to their need 

Clinical Aims

·         To bring together the majority of cancer care and research under one roof, so that patients are given seamless care and staff can work together on diagnosing, treating and applying research into cancer.

·         To improve supportive care, patient information and complementary therapies at each stage of the patient pathway to improve patients’ quality of life both during treatment and into recovery and survivorship.

·         To provide an outstanding environment that will ‘lift the spirits’ of patients, relatives and staff.

·         To deliver compassionate care and a world class service 

Department Information

The Oncology department is internationally distinguished for its commitment to research & development and constantly strives for excellence through dedication and innovation. Oncology at GSTT is entering a new and exciting phase with a state of the art cancer centre recently being built.  As part of the commitment of the Trust to providing the highest quality of cancer care, the new purpose-built cancer centre on Guy’s campus opened in September 2016 and a new cancer centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup opened in May 2017. The Guy’s Cancer Centre was designed by staff and patients working together and provides state-of-the-art cancer care in a supportive modern environment. The centre includes individual departments (villages): welcome (housing all patient support activities), radiotherapy, chemotherapy and outpatients. This is a great opportunity to join us and become part of a dynamic and encouraging team .We look forward to helping support your oncology career in world renown and forward thinking environment

Cancer Care

Guy’s & St Thomas’ Trust is part of King’s Health Partners (KHP) which is one of only six Academic Health Science Centres in the UK accredited by the Department of Health, with a vision to achieve excellence in clinical care, research & teaching. KHP is aspiring to transform cancer care in the region with a 5-year strategy underway.

Radiotherapy

The Radiotherapy department at the cancer centre on Guy’s campus and the cancer centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup is equipped with 9 True Beam linacs (including one Stx unit with HDMLC), 3 CT simulators, 1 PET/CT. The Clinical Oncology Department at Guy’s and St Thomas’ offers a wide range of specialised radiotherapy techniques including; IMRT, IGRT, VMAT, 4D-RT, SABR, HDR brachytherapy, LDR seed brachytherapy, TSEBT, TBI and SRS.

Guy’s Cancer Centre is accredited as a comprehensive cancer centre by the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes and a Cancer Research UK centre by CRUK.

Chemotherapy

Number of ambulatory day care beds/chairs (outpatients)

44 chairs (these are based in the Cancer Day Unit and the    Haematology Day Unit respectively).

10 beds (these are based in several locations across the Day Units)