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Job summary

Main area
Histopathology
Grade
MN37
Contract
Fixed term: 12 months
Hours
Full time - 40 hours per week
Job ref
392-MS302
Employer
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Stanmore
Town
Stanmore
Salary
dependant on experience
Closing
09/06/2023 23:59

Employer heading

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust logo

COVID-19 Vacancy Clinical and Molecular Fellow

MN37

Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust. 

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust is the largest orthopaedic hospital in the UK and a global leader in our field.  We provide a dynamic working environment where we support frontline staff to implement improvements so that we can realise our vision of being a world leading neuro musculoskeletal hospital providing the best patient care and staff experience in the NHS, delivering world leading research, and offering a strong foundation of education, training and career progression. Our dedicated staff come from diverse backgrounds, and our patients benefit from the wide range of experience they bring to the Trust. The RNOH brings unrivalled expertise together in one place allowing us to deliver some of the world’s most complex and innovative care to our patients

  • Rated Good by the CQC
  • Two sites, one in central London and one in Stanmore - which has recently opened The Stanmore Building, a new, state-of-the-art inpatient facility
  • Our Research and Innovation Centre works closely with our main academic partner, University College London
  • Recognised as a centre of excellence,  leading on national initiatives, such as the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Programme
  • Further major redevelopment underway across the Stanmore site – improving and modernising our facilities to maintain our position as the UK’s leading centre for orthopaedic medicine
  • In the NHS staff survey, over 90% of our staff were satisfied with the quality of care they are able to give to patients - the best result of any NHS Trust in the country
  • Our staff also indicated that they had the best experience of appraisals as compared to all other NHS Trusts.

This is a great time to join us and play a critical role in the next stage of RNOH’s journey to achieving an outstanding CQC rating.

Our aim is to remain a world-leading orthopaedic hospital with the best patient care and staff experience in the NHS. To do this, we have four core values that underpin everything that we do. We use our values to help ensure that we are always focused on the things that our staff and patients believe are most important:

  • Patients first, always
  • Excellence, in all we do
  • Trust, honesty and respect, for each other
  • Equality, for all

Our annual staff survey results have been improving year on year, with our staff telling us that their experience of working at the Trust is getting better and better. They also indicate that our staff feel very loyal to the RNOH and committed to its role in providing the very best care to our complex patient group. We hope that we can welcome you to our growing team soon.

The RNOH recognises that vaccination remains the best line of defence against COVID19 and encourages and supports all staff to be vaccinated.

Job overview

This exciting post is available to provide an individual who wishes to excel in the field of pathology the opportunity to develop skills to do just that. The Fellow will be trained in skills which are transferable and have the potential to be usefully employed in all areas of diagnostic pathology. The skills acquired will allow the individual to continue to develop over their career and to respond to changes that are likely to take place over the coming decades because of the greater use of technology. If the Fellow were interested, they could enrol in a post-graduate degree, but this is not a requirement.

 

The Fellow will acquire high level diagnostic skills by supporting the 4 consultants in delivery of the clinical service. The experience and training will provide the successful candidate the opportunity to become a highly competent specialist consultant histopathologist over the 12 months of the fellowship. Ideally, we would like to see the Fellow obtain a sarcoma post for which there is an unmet need across the UK and abroad however the skills acquired in this post would make then competitive for other areas in pathology if that is what they wished to pursue.

Main duties of the job

The appointed individual will undertake the cut up of complex musculoskeletal pathology cases under supervision of a consultant histopathologist, and will supervise more junior / less experienced staff undertaking this task. 

 

The individual will draft histopathology reports on specimens received from RNOH and from referred hospitals. In the first instance these reports will be jointly authorised with a consultant histopathologists but with time, it would be expected that the appointee would have gained sufficient knowledge and experience to sign out cases.

Working for our organisation

The Cellular and Molecular Department at the RNOH has full UKAS accreditation. It is one of five National Commissioning Group bone tumour pathology units in the UK.  The RNOH pathology service is more or less similar in size to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham in terms and sees more tumour cases than the other 3 units.

 

The Cellular and Molecular Pathology Department provides the pathology service for the London Sarcoma Service. This service is delivered from the RNOHT NHS Trust. All limb sarcoma surgery and biopsies are undertaken at RNOH and the oncology and radiotherapy service is provided from the latter. Sarcoma of other parts of the body (head and neck, chest, breast, abdomen, female and male genital tract etc.) are undertaken at UCLH. The cut-up of these specimens is performed at UCLH but all cases are reviewed at RNOH.

 

The consultant pathologists at RNOH have a close working relationship with colleagues at Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham, and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital Oxford. A case from each unit is circulated to the other 2 hospitals on a weekly basis. The consultant from Oxford visits us at regular intervals to discuss difficult cases. If there is a significant disagreement on a diagnosis between consultants, the case is sent to review to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Birmingham, and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital Oxford.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The successful candidate will also be required to undertake the following with emphasis on areas of particular interest to the successful candidate:

•          Draft the microscopic findings of cases that s/he has cut up and present the reports to a consultant histopathologist for authorisation (with time it would be expected that the appointee would sign out cases independently)

•          Undertake under supervision the gross analysis of complex specimens (only at RNOH), and /or supervise biomedical staff when undertaking cut up of non-complex cases

•          Undertake, develop and interpret molecular pathology tests for the diagnostic service

•          Develop the transformation to digital pathology

•          Undertake audits of the work performed in the pathology department

•          To work as a team with other members of the department to ensure that UKAS accreditation is maintained, and that the standards of the service are being continually improved

•          To participate in biobanking of material for operations performed at RNOH

•          To participate in CPD

•          To participate actively in departmental and consultant meetings

Person specification

registrations

Essential criteria
  • FRCPath or equivalent, able to be registered (quickly) with GMC, have the IELTS test (if required).

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience in general pathology including undertaking gross cut-up of complex pathology cases
  • Experience of using and maintaining basic laboratory equipment safely and responsibly (e.g. dissection tables, microscope).
Desirable criteria
  • Experience of LIMS

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Understands basic Health and Safety in healthcare/laboratory environments.
  • Aware of the Human Tissue Authority (HTA).
  • Knowledge of cancer

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Excellent numeracy and literacy
  • Able to communicate effectively with clinical colleagues, managers, other staff, patients and relatives
  • Able to make decisions when comparing data/information.
  • Meticulous attention to detail and accurate data recording.
  • Works flexibly and adapts to change.
  • Confident using basic Microsoft Excel functions to record and filter data.
Desirable criteria
  • Able to analyse more complex data or situations.

communication

Essential criteria
  • Enthusiastic and pro-active attitude
  • Approachable and reassuring.
  • Works effectively independently and as part of a team.
  • Able to communicate effectively with clinical colleagues, managers, other staff, patients and relatives
Desirable criteria
  • Communicates complex or sensitive information clearly and concisely.
  • Supports team members to deliver a common goal.
  • Resilient when working in a busy and time-sensitive environment.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Apprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleInvestors in People: GoldStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Mindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Improving working livesAge positiveDisability confident employerCare quality commission - GoodDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - Gold

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Simon Burn
Job title
Service Manager Histopathology
Email address
simonburn1@nhs.net
Telephone number
02089095354
Additional information

none

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