This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced ST4+ to join the General Paediatrics Team at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
Working within one of the UK's largest specialist children's hospitals, the post holder will contribute to the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing management of children presenting with a wide range of acute and complex medical conditions.
The role involves supporting the General Paediatrics service, which provides care for approximately 5,000 admissions annually, alongside extensive outpatient and rapid access clinic activity. The post holder will participate in the management of patients within the Paediatric Assessment Unit (PAU), inpatient wards, and specialty services, undertaking clinical assessments, formulating management plans, coordinating investigations, and contributing to patient discharge planning under consultant supervision.
As part of a multidisciplinary team, the successful candidate will actively participate in ward rounds, multidisciplinary meetings, and collaborative working with colleagues across paediatric specialties, emergency medicine, surgery, intensive care, primary care, and community services. The role also includes significant involvement in the acute paediatric on-call rota, providing senior clinical support to junior doctors, responding to emergency situations, reviewing deteriorating patients, accepting referrals from external healthcare professionals, and ensuring timely senior review of admissions in line with national standards.
You will contribute to the ST4+ Medical On Call Rota.
Please refer to the Job Description for full duties
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of specialist health care, providing a wide range of both hospital and community-based services, including specialist mental health services for children and young people, to over 275,000 children and young people each year. In addition to the hospital site located in the West Derby area of Liverpool, Alder Hey 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 Alder Park building in the nearby borough of Sefton.
Alder Hey offers a number of specialist services. We are one of the two accredited major trauma units for children in the North West and are also nationally commissioned as one of four epilepsy surgical centres, a service we provide in partnership with Manchester Children’s Hospital. As the regional cardiac surgical centre we continue to work with the cardiac network across the region in order to provide seamless pathways of care for children with congenital heart problems. Alder Hey hosts a regional Tier 4 inpatient unit for children under the age of 13 who require highly specialised mental health support.
DUTIES
The general principles within the Acute & Specialist System are:
Inpatient and consult work
Inpatient care and Outpatient clinics
Assist in the care of inpatients or shared care patients, and day cases, including planning admission, investigations, management, and follow-up. There will be opportunity to attend consultant led clinics.
Undertake initial assessment of new ward referrals and formulate differential diagnoses, investigations, and management plan in liaison with the consultant.
Ward rounds
Participate in daily ward rounds of specialty patients and those referred for specialist consultation & advice by other teams.
MDTs
Participate in multidisciplinary team meetings with a range of specialities through the working week (this may involve contributing to the discussion, providing background history and investigation results, and making notes of the discussion and outcome). Also join MDTs arranged for individual complex patients.
Paediatric Assessment Unit
A new model of care is currently being piloted at the Trust predicated on the creation of a dedicated assessment area for acute paediatric patients (PAU).
PAU accepts referrals from ED and community colleagues (GPs, health visitors, walk in Centre’s etc.)
Referrals from ED should be for medical patients who the ED team feel need Paediatric assessment with the potential need for further treatment and admission which is likely to be greater than 4-6 hours
You will be expected to undertake initial assessment, investigations, formulation of management plans and initiation of treatment, allowing for a period of observation and aiming for earlier discharges.
Assisting the Advanced nurse practitioners, ST1-3, F1/F2/GPST juniors in clerking in patients.
Discuss cases with the PAU Consultant and feedback advice, recommended investigations, and management.
On-call out of hours duties
You will be expected to participate on the ST4+ on-call rota. You will contribute to a 1:25 ST4 whole time equivalent Rota (dependent upon Deanery allocations). Out of hours shifts include long days (09:00-21:30) and night shifts (21:00-09:30) Monday to Sunday, and short-day shifts (08:00-16:00) at weekends.
The on call duties are shared as part of a team incorporating junior tier Resident Doctors (Foundation trainees, GP trainees and ST1-3) and senior tiers (ST4+).
Please find below the individual on call roles and responsibilities expected at ST4+ level.
ST4+ Duties
Senior support: Consultant on call and fellow ST4+
You will be expected to lead/support all crash calls.
You will be expected to assess and manage acutely deteriorating/unstable patients.
You will review both General Paediatric and Specialty in-patients including those on HDU.
You will provide reviews of surgical patients referred for medical opinion.
Review of patients stepped down from HDU and PICU to inpatient ward.
Accepting referrals and providing advice to our ED and community colleagues (GPs, health visitors, walk in Centre’s etc.).
Clerking in of all specialty TCI patients’ out-of-hours
Assisting the ST1-3 and F1/F2/GPST juniors in clerking in patients.
Senior review of all new admissions – within 4 hours as per RCPCH Facing the future.
All patients who are being considered for discharge is seen by or has their case discussed with a ST4+ doctor, as per RCPCH Facing the future.
