Job overview

The post is an appointment for 6-12 months as a Clinical Fellow in HDU at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Further extension by mutual agreement with the Clinical Lead may be possible depending on recruitment.

The successful candidate will be a Senior paediatric trainee ST6+ (or equivalent) or post-CCT (or equivalent) paediatrician 

This is an exciting opportunity to work with the HDU team, within Critical Care at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. As a busy level 2 HDU, the unit admits around 800 patients a year, covering a broad range of patients including cardiology, general and specialty medical and surgical paediatric patients, including post-operative patients. The HDU is geographically located next to the regional Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and the teams work closely together to facilitate the step-up of deteriorating patients and the step-down of recovering patients.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will work within an established and dynamic team of HDU Consultants, ACPs and clinical fellows to provide clinical cover across seven days. Currently the ACPs and fellows manage the clinical care of patients admitted to the High Dependency Unit with supported by the HDU Consultants with input from the specialty teams as required.

These posts have been created to expand the dedicated middle grade cover of the HDU. The rota is a hybrid rota with both ACPs and senior clinical fellows. With the expansion in cover the HDU rota will move to a 24/7 shift pattern. Shifts will be supported and lead by a HDU consultant on duty with on-site consultant presence between the hours of 08:00 to 22:00hours. Overnight there will be a HDU consultant available on call for advice and return to site if required.  

Working for our organisation

As one of Europe’s biggest and busiest children’s hospitals, at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, we treat everything from common illnesses to highly complex and specialist conditions. In addition to our main hospital site, we offer paediatric services at a number of community sites and hold local clinics across Merseyside, Cumbria, Shropshire, Wales and the Isle of Man. We also provide specialist inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs in our recently relocated and newly opened state of the art facility.

Alder Hey has a thriving research portfolio and leads research into children’s medicines, infection, inflammation and oncology. We are becoming recognised as one of the world’s leaders in children’s healthcare and research. We contribute to public health, lead cutting-edge research and teach the next generation of children’s specialists. Alongside this is our Innovation Hub, a dedicated space where clinicians and industries can come together to create new products and technologies.

We know that a children’s hospital is different and that our job is more than just treating an illness. To us, every child is an individual. As well as giving them the very best care, we set out to make them feel happy, safe and confident as they play, learn and grow. At Alder Hey we are here to look after a child and their family and that includes mums, dads, brothers and sisters.