We
are inviting applications to fill our STR level vacancy at The Leeds Teaching
Hospitals NHS Trust in the Department of Neurosurgery.
We
are looking for a dynamic individual to meet the demands of this fellowship
post in a high profile area of complex and demanding surgery.
Candidates
must be fully registered with the General Medical Council and hold a license to
practice at the time of application.
Candidates must also have a current up to date ALS certificate
The
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust is one of the largest trusts in the UK and
provides comprehensive secondary services to Leeds and tertiary services to
West and North Yorkshire. The General
Infirmary at Leeds is situated in the centre of the city, adjacent to Leeds
University, with which there are strong links
Consideration
will be given to applicants who wish to work full or part time and those
wishing to job share.
The Neurosurgical Spinal post will include a
thorough grounding in the clinical management, investigation and surgical
techniques for optimally managing adult patients with all forms of spinal
surgical disease. Leeds General Infirmary operates a strong MDT approach to
spinal disease with close and collaborative links between specialist
neurosurgical and orthopaedic spinal consultant teams. There are significant
further opportunities to develop research, and work with researchers and the
clinical nurse specialist team is expected. The fellow will gain independent
competencies in dealing with adult patients presenting with acute and elective
spinal disease including cranio-cervical pathology, spinal cord and intradural
tumour pathology and multilevel congenital and degenerative spinal disease
The
Department of Neurosciences in Leeds provides World-Class Spinal services
within an integrated Neurosurgical and Orthopaedic Spinal department. The
service is consultant-led and delivered through dedicated sub-specialty
services. The fellowship has approval from the Royal College of Surgeons of
England and is designed for Neurosurgical clinicians towards the end of
training and will provide all aspects of sub-specialty training in complex
spinal surgery in preparation for a consultant role sub-specializing in this
field.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process
of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As
such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right
to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do
experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please
bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if
you have any questions.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The
Departments of Neurosurgery and the Integrated Spinal Service provide a
comprehensive neurosurgical and spinal surgery service to the 2.5 million
people of West and North Yorkshire. The
Departments are housed within the Jubilee Wing of the General Infirmary at
Leeds.
The
Departments have 68 adult beds in two dedicated wards with an additional 7
bedded dedicated Neuro-intensive Care Unit as well as a 7 bedded dedicated High
Dependency Unit. There are four adult
operating theatres including one dedicated to emergency surgery 24 hours per
day. There are separate beds, operating
theatres, and intensive care facilities for Paediatric Neurosurgery. The
integrated spinal service offers all aspects of spinal surgery and is made up
of 4 Neurosurgical and 8 Spinal Orthopaedic Consultants.
The
surgical services within the CSU have close links with the other neuroscience
specialties that are all on site including Neuroradiology, Neurology,
Neuroanaesthetists and Neurophysiology.
The Neuro-pathology department for Yorkshire is now based at St Jamess
hospital but continues to provide a full histological and post-mortem service
including facilities for inter-operative histopathology.
The
Neuro Radiology Department is based at the Leeds General Infirmary and
comprises 7 Consultants, three of whom provide Endovascular services.
The
General Infirmary at Leeds is a level 1 trauma unit (MTC status) and there are
close links with other associated surgical specialties including trauma,
maxillofacial, plastics, cardiothoracic and ENT surgery.
The
department's work has continued to increase over the past years. The current caseload is some 3000 inpatients
per year and approximately 2000 operative cases per year.
The
Centre for Neurosciences in Leeds provides world class adult Neurosurgical and
Orthopaedic spinal care. The service is
consultant led and delivered through dedicated subspecialty services. The spinal services have very strong links
with Neurology, Neuroradiology, Neuropathology, and Leeds University.
As
would be expected, to support spinal surgery, all the theatres have BrainLAB
neuronavigation, CUSA, Sonopet, Zeiss microscopes (including navigated), X-ray
support, intra-operative frozen section, and intra-operative ultrasound. All patients are discussed in a weekly MDT
that conforms to the BASS standards and all patients are entered into the
National Spinal Database.
The
Neurosurgical Spine consultants (Mr Pal, Mr Derham, Mr Selvanathan, and Mr
Sinha, and Mr Kellet) integrate with the Spinal Orthopaedic consultant team (Mr
Gummerson, Mr Rao, Mr Khan, Mr Rudol, Mr Loughenbury, Mr Borse, and Mr
Dunsmuir) and run a combined on-call rota. There is a designated specialist
Cervical Spine MDT clinic which runs on a weekly basis. All patients undergoing
operative intervention are discussed at a weekly Neurosurgical spine and Spinal
MDT. All aspects of Spinal surgery are offered within the department. The
department currently supports 3 fellowship posts in spinal surgery including
the Stryker Industry Fellowship and the National Spinal Fellowship. This new
fellowship post is intended to allow an experienced trainee, from a
Neurosurgical background and peri-CCT the opportunity to gain more experience
over a one-year period in this sub-specialty within spinal surgery with a
specific interest in craniocervical and intramedullary microsurgery. It is
expected that sufficient experience will be obtained from this fellowship to
allow a successful fellow to offer themselves for appointment to a consultant
position involving a substantial commitment to this specialist area of surgery.
It is expected that through the fellowship program, experience is gained in the
assessment, investigation and operative management of patients presenting with
both acute and elective complex spinal pathology. It is also expected that the
Fellow will gain experience in the management of degenerative, neoplastic,
infective, and traumatic disorders of the spine. The Fellow will be expected to
perform most of the complex spinal cases (depending on their level of experience)
and will be trained in techniques including complex cranio-cervical junction
and sub-axial spine reconstruction, microsurgical techniques in relation to the
spinal cord, minimally invasive techniques (MIS, Vertebroplasty, XLIF), and
spinal fusion techniques. Participation in a weekly Spinal MDT consisting of
Neurosurgeons and Spinal Orthopaedic surgeons, Radiologists, and specialist
nurses will be expected. The Fellow will be encouraged to participate and
conduct research into complex spinal disorders and attend national and
international meetings. The Fellow will be expected to participate in the
general neurosurgical registrar on call rota, to provide continuity of care for
patients, and maintain a general emergency skill set in neurosurgery. As such,
preference will be given to candidates applying with base specialty skills in
Neurosurgery or FRCS (SN). It is expected that the Fellow will share
responsibility for the neurosurgical patients in their area of sub-specialist
interest outside of strict rota commitments.
There
are very strong links with Leeds University and local brain tumour
charities. There is a dedicated Spinal
Research Nurse.
THE
LEEDS WAY VALUES
Our
values are part of what make us different from other trusts, so we see this as
a strength, as well as a responsibility. They have been developed by our staff
and set out what they see as important to how we work. Our five values are:
Patient-centred
Collaborative
Fair
Accountable
Empowered
All
our actions and endeavours will be guided and evaluated through these values
Additionally,
the following are core values which relate specifically to this post:
The
beliefs and attitudes that underpin effective performance within the job
role. Emphasis should be on the
requirements of the role not the individual when completing this section. Examples might include quality focus,
mistakes are used as a continual learning experience, honesty, integrity etc.
Leeds
Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is part of the West Yorkshire Association of Acute
Trusts (WYAAT), a collaborative of the NHS hospital trusts from across West
Yorkshire and Harrogate working together to provide the best possible care for
our patients.
By
bringing together the wide range of skills and expertise across West Yorkshire
and Harrogate we are working differently, innovating, and driving forward
change to deliver the highest quality care.
By working for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust this is your
opportunity to be a part of that change.
WYAAT
is the acute sector arm of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care
Partnership, one of the largest integrated care systems in the country. The
Partnerships ambition is for everyone to have the best possible health and
wellbeing, and the work of WYAAT, and each individual trust, supports that
ambition.
Additionally,
the following are core values which relate specifically to this post:
Team
working - the successful applicant will be expected to work closely with
theatre and ward teams, demonstrating a strong commitment to collaborative,
patient centred care. They will be expected to demonstrate excellent
communication skills.
Quality
and safety focused - the Trust places a strong emphasis on continuous learning
and the importance of sharing both good practice and learning from mistakes.
The successful candidate will be expected to fully support these principles.
MEDICAL
STAFF IN THE DEPARTMENT
The
Department is led by 12 Consultant Neurosurgeons and 7 Orthopaedic Spinal
Surgeons. They all have comprehensive general Neurosurgical commitment as well
as subspecialty interests.
Neurosurgeons
Mr
P D Chumas - Paediatric, Oncology and Epilepsy Neurosurgery
Mr
N I Phillips - Pituitary, Vascular and Skull Base Neurosurgery
Mr
A K Tyagi - Vascular and Paediatric Neurosurgery
Mr
D Pal - Spinal Neurosurgery
Mr
S Thomson - Adult Oncology and Spinal Neurosurgery
Mr
J R Goodden - Paediatric, Oncology and Spasticity Neurosurgery
Mr
K Deniz - Vascular and Posterior Skull Base Neurosurgery
Mr
G Sivakumar - Paediatric, Functional, Epilepsy & Oncology Neurosurgery
Mr
R Corns - Adult Oncology and Trauma Neurosurgery
Mr
C Derham - Spinal Neurosurgery and Trauma Neurosurgery
Mr
I Anderson - Vascular, Skull base
Mr
R Matthew - Adult oncology and Research
Mr
S Selvanathan - Spinal Neurosurgery
Mr
P Sinha - Spinal Neurosurgery
Orthopaedic
Spinal Surgeons
Mr
R Dunsmuir - Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery
Mr
A Rao - Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery
Mr
A Khan - Orthopaedic Spinal
Surgery
Mr
N Gummerson - Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery
Mr
G Rudol - Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery
Mr
P Loughenbury - Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery
Mr
V Borse - Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery
The
middle grade rota consists of 16 Higher Specialty Trainees participating in a
1:14 out of hours rota.