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Job summary

Main area
Critical Care
Grade
NHS Medical & Dental: Consultant
Contract
Fixed term: 12 months (Locum post)
Hours
Full time - 10 sessions per week (plus on call)
Job ref
411-SUR-25-7312891
Employer
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Town
Liverpool
Salary
£105,504 - £139,882 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
14/07/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust logo

Locum Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine

NHS Medical & Dental: Consultant

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of specialist health care and has a presence in community outreach sites and, in collaboration with other providers, our clinicians help deliver care closer to patients’ homes by holding local clinics at locations from Cumbria to Shropshire, in Wales and the Isle of Man. The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Sunflower House building newly relocated, and opened on the hospital site.

We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We’re also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.

As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.

You can expect a warm welcome at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At Alder Hey we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:

  • Great flexible working opportunities
  • Lease car scheme and Home Electronics Scheme
  • Generous annual leave and pension scheme
  • Extensive staff health and well-being programmes

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity to join an enthusiastic, well-motivated and generally awesome team – as a full time 10 Programmed Activity (PA) locum post in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is open for application. Applicants for this post must have in-depth experience of general medical, neonatal surgical, neurosurgical & cardiac paediatric intensive care. In particular they must have extensive experience in the provision of extra-corporeal support for children with extreme cardio-respiratory failure.

There may also be the opportunity for a locum consultant appointment.

Main duties of the job

  • Direct Clinical Care
  • Teaching & academic 
  • Managerial responsibilities
  • Audit & Clinical Governance 
  • Research
  • Continuing professional development  

 

Working for our organisation

PICU

Alder Hey is a designated Lead Centre for Paediatric Intensive Care within the UK. The 21-bedded unit cares for children aged 0 – 16 years of age from all specialties including Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Neurology, Burns, Infectious Diseases and Oncology. The PICU is an approved RCPCH national grid training centre for up to six Grid Trainees in Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine. On average there are 1100 admissions to PICU of which approximately 400 are post-operative cardiac surgical patients. Other specialist tertiary services accessing PICU include neurosurgery, major neonatal surgery, craniofacial surgery, cleft palate surgery and patients needing ECMO & CVVH support. The hospital is a designated Major Paediatric Trauma Centre and a paediatric ECMO Centre.

PHDU

PHDU at Alder Hey was commissioned in 2003 as a stand-alone facility to increase PICU capacity and efficiency. It is a co-located and separately staffed 15 bedded Unit which averages approximately 650 admissions a year. Patients are admitted as both a step-down from PICU and a step-up from the general wards as appropriate. Patients requiring a PHDU level of care are also admitted from referring hospitals throughout the region for ongoing specialist paediatric tertiary care. Patients may receive acute non-invasive respiratory support or increased invasive support via home ventilators on this unit.

 

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will contribute to a rota which will provide 24/7 cover for PICU in combination with other Consultant colleagues. A total of 10 PA's are payable with a breakdown as follows: 8.5 DCC + 1.5 SPA (as detailed in the Job Plan section of this document). Additional clinical PA's may be available by mutual agreement.

The PICU Consultants direct the day to day clinical management of all patients in the PICU with close working relationships with other Consultants in the hospital.  Patients are admitted under the joint care of the duty PICU Consultant and another appropriate Alder Hey Consultant, the latter taking charge of care when the patient is discharged from PICU.

The Consultants in Paediatric Intensive Care work a system where daytime cover for the PICU is provided on a rotating basis, with a 1st on PICU Consultant having prime responsibility for running the unit each day.  Additionally, there are supporting 2nd and 3rd on Consultants.  The Consultant out of hours on-call commitment will be a one in 6 rota with prospective cover as either 1st on or 2nd on.  Daily morning hand-over rounds start at 8.30AM.  There are further rounds at 5:00PM and an evening hand-over round at 8.30PM.  Consultants do not have any clinical responsibilities in the 24 hours following being on-call. Job plans take into account the full spectrum of clinical commitments. There is personal desk space and unit secretarial support.

In order to cover a growing ECMO Service and be compliant with the PICS Standards we are expanding Consultant numbers to ensure that there are 2 PICU Consultants on call (i.e. available) at all times. The job plan is displayed later.  

The PHDU currently has a clinically ‘open’ model of care, it is co-located with PICU and separately staffed from a nursing and medical perspective. Children in PHDU are under the care of either their admitting paediatric medical or surgical teams or the most appropriate clinical team at the time of transfer from PICU. The current model of PHDU care is changing with the appointment of HDU Consultants.

Person specification

All

Essential criteria
  • Education & Training
  • Experience
  • Skills
  • Personal Attributes
  • Knowledge
  • Ohter
Desirable criteria
  • Education & Training
  • Experience
  • Skils
  • Personal Attributes
  • Knowledge
  • Other

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Fair Employment Charter Status - Aspiring LevelVeteran AwareApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - SilverArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Navajo - Merseyside and CheshireDisability confident employerHappy to Talk Flexible Working

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
Sarah Mahoney
Job title
Consultant in Paediatric Critical Care
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
0151 252 5792
Additional information

Dr Marie Horan
Consultant in Paediatric Critical Care & Clinical Director of Critical Care
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
Tel: 0151 228 4811 – ext. 4184
Email: [email protected]

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