Locum Consultant in Chemical Pathology and Metabolic Medicine

This is a 12-month fixed-term locum post based primarily at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital site of Bedfordshire NHS Foundation Trust. The service operates across both Trust sites, and the postholder will be expected to work cross-site when required.

The postholder will join a multidisciplinary team comprising two Consultant Chemical Pathologists, one Consultant Clinical Scientist, one Specialty Doctor, four Principal Clinical Scientists and one Senior Clinical Scientist, providing a comprehensive clinical biochemistry service.

The postholder will participate in the clinical biochemistry rotas. Daytime duty biochemist work is undertaken by the Clinical Scientists and Specialty Doctor, with Consultant Chemical Pathologists supporting escalated cases requiring specialist medical advice.

The out-of-hours rota, currently 1:4, covers weekday nights and weekends and involves providing clinical advice. As the service develops, this may become a single cross-site rota, with an anticipated frequency of 1:7 or 1:8. On-call duties are paid at Category A.

The postholder will lead the Luton outpatient service, which predominantly comprises lipid clinics, and provide Consultant supervision and oversight of clinics undertaken by the Specialty Doctor.

The Trust will support the development of additional specialist interests where practical and beneficial to the service. Opportunities to develop laboratory, clinical and service leadership experience may also be supported.

Routine laboratory hours are 09:00-17:30, Monday to Friday,. Both sites operate 24/7, with outstanding routine work and urgent inpatient and emergency requests processed outside these hours.

The postholder will advise on complex cases escalated by the duty clinician and deliver outpatient services, currently comprising weekly new and follow-up clinics, plus one additional new-patient clinic each month. Clinics are mainly conducted remotely and predominantly cover lipid disorders, with occasional endocrine and metabolic cases.

The role includes responding to primary care advice and guidance requests, which will transition to a single-point-of-contact model, and providing Chemical Pathology or metabolic medicine advice for inpatient referrals.

The postholder will contribute clinical leadership to UKAS accreditation, ME5 Pathology Network development, risk management, service and IT development, clinical guidelines, demand management, laboratory management and cross-site harmonisation. Mentoring is available for those new to consultancy or clinical leadership.

The department includes an Immunology service overseen by a Consultant Immunologist and has strong links with clinical specialties, including paediatrics, endocrinology, diabetes and obstetrics. The postholder will maintain and develop these relationships.

Routine oversight of IQC and EQA is not required, although occasional clinical advice on significant poor performance may be requested.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology.

Our Values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.

This is a 12 month fixed term locum post, based on the Luton and Dunstable site within Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.