Clinical Lead in Adult Emergency Medicine

Job summary
Lead a team that makes a difference when people need us most. As Clinical Lead for Adult Emergency Medicine at Newham University Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, you will help shape an emergency service that combines timely decisions with compassionate care for Newham's diverse communities. You will bring colleagues across the hospital together to improve patients' journeys, from first assessment to admission or discharge, and make care safer during periods of intense pressure. This is an opportunity to give frontline ideas a voice, develop the next generation of emergency clinicians and help create a department where staff feel supported to do their best work.

We welcome applications from substantive consultants or doctors in equivalent senior medical appointments, with full GMC registration and a licence to practise, relevant clinical experience and evidence of leading improvement with multidisciplinary teams. You will report to and be responsible to the Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC), and be accountable to the Divisional Director for Medicine. Your annual objectives will be agreed jointly with the Divisional Director and Clinical Director, alongside your development and mentoring needs. The three-year appointment is subject to satisfactory annual review and includes one programmed activity (approximately four hours per week), dependent on specialty size and complexity, and a £7,500 annual responsibility allowance.

Main duties of the job
The Clinical Lead for Adult Emergency Medicine leads safe, effective, equitable and sustainable specialty services. The post holder reports to and is responsible to the Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC), and is accountable to the Divisional Director for Medicine, working with directorate management and nursing colleagues.

The Clinical Director line manages the Clinical Lead and reports to and is accountable to the Divisional Director for Medicine. Clinical Lead annual objectives are agreed jointly with the Divisional Director and Clinical Director. The Divisional Director reports to and is accountable to the Chief Executive Officer.

About us
Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

Job responsibilities
Core responsibilities
Quality safety and clinical governance

• Lead clinical audit and quality improvement against relevant national standards, professional guidance and patient outcomes.
• Chair, or delegate to a governance lead, monthly specialty governance meetings covering incidents, complaints, mortality, risks and improvement. Attend directorate and divisional quality and safety meetings.
• Ensure patient safety incidents are reported and receive proportionate responses under the Trusts Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) policy and plan. Involve and support patients, families and staff compassionately, and fulfil Duty of Candour responsibilities.
• Maintain the specialty risk register, meet CQC requirements, act on inspection findings and escalate risks that exceed delegated authority or available resources.
• Ensure complaints are investigated and answered under Trust policy. Embed learning from incidents, complaints and mortality reviews in practice, drawing on patient, carer and frontline staff experience.
• For safety actions, identify an accountable owner, delivery date, implementation evidence, outcome and balancing measures, and the governance route for review. Recommend closure only when effectiveness is demonstrated; escalate residual risk and overdue actions.
• Deliver and audit the consultant assessment and review standards applicable to the specialty, including timely review after deterioration. For adult medical emergency admissions, ensure consultant assessment as soon as possible and within 14 hours of admission, followed by daily consultant review. Registrar review supports care but does not replace required consultant review.

Leadership culture and workforce

• Provide visible, inclusive leadership. Address bullying, harassment, discrimination and poor performance promptly and fairly under Trust policy, and support staff to raise concerns safely.
• Work with nursing, operational and security colleagues to prevent violence and aggression, support staff after distressing incidents and respond to concerns about wellbeing and moral distress.
• Support recruitment, retention, succession planning and development. Plan sustainable rotas around demand, skill mix, supervision, rest, fair deployment and prospective leave cover.
• Provide line management for consultants and other medical staff where delegated by the Clinical Director within agreed divisional arrangements. Work with the Clinical Director on directorate consistency and escalate unresolved concerns through the appropriate Trust process.

Person Specification
Qualifications and registration
Essential

• Evidence of continuing professional development and clinical experience relevant to the specialty.
• Substantive consultant or equivalent senior medical appointment
• Full GMC registration with a licence to practise

Desirable

• Relevant postgraduate qualification
• Management or leadership qualification

Experience
Essential

• Evidence of delivering service improvement and effective partnership working
• Experience of clinical leadership and effective multidisciplinary working
• Experience of clinical governance and patient safety

Desirable

• . Experience of addressing poor performance and delivering financial or operational improvements.
• Experience of leading change across services

Skills
Essential

• Able to use data to deliver and evaluate improvement, manage disagreement constructively and escalate risks appropriately.
• Able to lead a specialty team, prioritise competing demands and communicate clearly

Desirable

• Experience of team job planning or appraisal
• Formal quality improvement training

Knowledge
Essential

• Understanding of Newham's health needs and inequalities, Trust priorities and the wider health and care context.
• Understanding of relevant specialty standards, PSIRF principles, safe staffing and supervision

Desirable

• Knowledge of North East London pathways, commissioning and system working.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).