Today the NHS has published a job advert for a biomedical Consultant / Specialist to lead the Norfolk and Suffolk ME and CFS Service.
The Patient / Carer Group had input into the wording for this advert. This is a link to the
Job Advert
Applications are invited for a Consultant/Specialist to Lead
the Norfolk and Suffolk ME and CFS Specialist Service. We are looking
for expressions of interest for the position of supporting
Consultant/Specialist to the ME and CFS Service.
Any Consultant/Specialist expressing an interest must have a
proven level of expertise and past clinical experience dealing with ME
and CFS. This must include experience of dealing with the most severely
affected.
Consultant disciplines which will be considered can be wide
ranging; e.g. from Haematology, Rheumatology, Neurology, Immunology,
Allergy, Endocrinology.
East Coast Community Healthcare CIC (ECCH) is an expanding social
enterprise and employer in the East Anglian region, set up in 2010 under
the GT Yarmouth & Waveney Divestment programme for Community
Services.
We provide a range of NHS in-patient, community and social care
services across part of the East Anglian region of the Norfolk and
Suffolk, an area covered currently by 7 Clinical Commissioning Groups
(CCG’s ).
We offer an excellent range of opportunities for career support and
development and a good range of employee benefits, including the NHS
Pension Scheme.
We are an organisation that values and invests in its staff and their
development. We will provide scope for innovation, further service
development and enhancement under the steer of a designated consultant
responsible for the ME and CFS Service as we work through to a newly
agreed Service Specification under the “Transformation” programme under
the lead of Suffolk Commissioning Services.
We are currently embarking on a major “Transformation” programme for
the ME and CFS Service in collaboration with both Norfolk and Suffolk
commissioners and our regional Patient Group that aims to change the
delivery of our existing multi-disciplinary ME and CFS Service. The
transformation programme is delivering change from a 'therapy led'
service to a multi-disciplinary consultant led service which takes a
biomedical approach. This transformation is based on the
recommendations of a comprehensive Needs Assessment carried out by NHS
Norfolk in 2011.
The Consultant led Service will provide diagnosis support, ongoing
care and domiciliary support to both children and adults, including the
severely affected 25% of patients, across the whole of Norfolk and
Suffolk. This is in line with demonstrated needs identified in a
comprehensive Needs Assessment published in March 2012 by the Norfolk
Public Health Consultant.
The service will offer advice on a wide range of symptom control
models, access to aids, equipment and other modes of support provided
both in-house and via outward referral to specialist services.
The expansion of our service provision aims to increase the level of
specialist support, steer and management available for our patients and
staff.
In addition to the above we, intend to expand our involvement within
research and this post will be pivotal to that development. Clinicians
with a proven track record in patient supported ME research are vital to
the new service.
The Consultant Role and expertise.
- Understand the national and local priorities and policies relevant
to the ME and CFS Service. NICE guidance having been considered would
adopt a local needs perspective and approach which may accord may accord
with locally acceptable aspects of the NICE Guidance.
- Work with CCG’s to deliver the service in line with the recent agreed Needs Assessment, and the agreed local strategic vision.
- Oversee the assessment and development of the ME and CFS care pathway.
- Make recommendations regarding the management of individual cases to
the referring medical practitioners, particularly for those patients
who are complex and /or severely affected.
- Work as part of a multidisciplinary team to provide clinical leadership and supervision to the clinical team.
- Take a service lead in relation to biomedical research by developing the appropriate links with external bodies / academia etc.
- Participate in the teaching and accredited training of other healthcare professionals, including local GPS
- Provide advice for related professionals such as Social Workers and
educationalists working with patients with ME and CFS in the local CCG
network.
We welcome informal enquiries about our ME/CFS service and the
organisation. Please feel free to contact Nick Wright on 01502 718600 if
you would like to discuss the above requirements. To make a formal
expression of interest please press the Apply Now button below to
complete our application form.
