Care of the Elderly - Clinical Fellow (Oncology & Frailty)

at  Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The aims of this post are to enable you to develop competencies and engage in formal training in interface geriatrics and oncology liaison. Cheltenham General Hospital houses a regional cancer centre providing radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) and supportive care for the population of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. There are 16 consultants providing a wide range of tumour site specific specialisation. Within the cancer centre there is a 24 hour acute unit where patients with complications of cancer and/or treatment are assessed. The department also runs an Acute Oncology Services for both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal with both ANP and consultant provision. You will rotate through clinics, attend MDTs, and support the management of frail older adults on the wards. A key component of this post is quality improvement work to demonstrate the benefit a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment and liaison work. The job will also include 2 days a week working with the Frailty Assessment Service supporting the Frailty Assessment Unit and Frailty Virtual ward.
We anticipate that the applicant for this post will have MRCP and working at ST3+ looking at Out of Programme Experience from a Geriatric Medicine specialist training programme to gain more experience in Oncology Liaison work and frailty interface medicine on a Frailty Assessment Unit and Frailty Virtual Ward.
Oncology liaison work is a developing field for geriatric medicine services, and such experience is not routinely available on rotational training programmes. Educational supervision will be provided by a geriatrician and an oncologist.
The oncology experience will be varied and involve rotating through specialist oncology clinics and Multi-Disciplinary Meetings, alongside supporting the management of frail older patients on the oncology wards.
We will encourage the completion of a quality improvement project and poster presentation or publication.
Our Care of The Elderly Team consists of 13 geriatricians that work across Gloucester Royal Hospital, Cheltenham General Hospital, the seven Community Hospitals in Gloucestershire. We also have geriatricians who are working with community frailty services, movement disorders clinics, falls and syncope clinics. The Frailty Assessment Service is a multidisciplinary service assessing patients in ED and on the Frailty Assessment Unit, and also receives patients directly from the community. The Frailty Virtual Ward is a technology enabled service that supports patients to receive hospital level care at home and is part of a wider Virtual Hospital.
We are a forward thinking department and one of the first to develop a geriatrician lead orthogeriatrics ward, we also have a peri-operative medicine service and keen to move forward with progressing liaison work with our oncology colleagues.
Cheltenham General Hospital houses a regional cancer centre providing radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) and supportive care for the population of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. There are 16 consultants providing a wide range of tumour site specific specialisation. Within the cancer centre there is a 24 hour acute unit where patients with complications of cancer and/or treatment are assessed. The department also runs an Acute Oncology Service for both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal with both ANP and consultant provision.
For 2.5 days per week you will be based within the Oncology Centre. You will attend SACT and new and follow up clinics in order to learn about general principles of care within Oncology. You will focus on one or two cancer sites for 6 months e.g. urology and ovarian) and will then have the opportunity to rotate to another one or two sites. This will allow you to learn in depth about relevant cancers with reference to the frail population and also to explore common themes found within all cancer sites. Attendance at site-specific MDTs will allow further understanding of how oncology management fits within the overall patient pathway. You will set up a frailty ward round of oncology inpatients, both on the wards within the Oncology centre and other areas within the trust, visiting these with our Acute Oncology nurses. A key component of this post is to work with Oncologists to demonstrate the benefit of Geriatric Assessment as part of decision making when commencing a course of SACT, particularly for patients with non-curative malignancies. This quality improvement work is anticipated to change practice and to reduce acute admissions as a result of toxicity from treatment.
For 2 days per week (this would be equivalent number of 4 sessions to accommodate other learning needs) on Frailty Unit at GRH or CGH you would work along side our enthusiastic team of Consultant Geriatricians, GPs with special interest in Frailty, Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Advanced Clinical Practitioners, therapists in order to develop novel models of working that are essential for the rapidly changing needs of the modern NHS. We have recently added Virtual Ward to our existing model of Frailty at the front door. There are exciting plans to develop a Same Day Emergency Care at Cheltenham General Hospital in order to compliment the existing Frailty Model that operates at GRH.
You will be offered dedicated time to reflect, consolidate and publish findings of your experience at local, regional and national level. You will benefit from support and mentoring from experienced colleagues within Post Graduate Medical Education. For those who are interested in acquiring certificates in leadership that are offered remotely by neighboring Universities we would be keen to explore funding opportunities. Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to discuss at the earliest opportunity

Please refer the Job description for details