NHS Job Advert for Consultant / Specialist to lead our service

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.