NHS Lothian
Children’s Services
Royal Hospital for Sick Children Edinburgh and Simpson Centre for
Reproductive Health
Clinical Fellows Paediatrics/Neonates
1. Outline of the post
Two one-year fixed term posts are available from 05 August 2015.
These posts are designed to provide high quality clinical experience and training in
paediatrics and neonates and to give opportunities for individualised personal development
in research, teaching or special clinical skills. The posts are based at the Royal Hospital for
Sick Children, Edinburgh and the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health for daytime and
out of hours duties. Each post is a rotation with six months in general paediatrics and six
months in neonatology, with the post holders taking part in the junior tier rota.
2. NHS Lothian
NHS Lothian is an integrated NHS Board in Scotland providing primary, community, mental
health and hospital services. Mr Tim Davison is Chief Executive and Dr David Farquharson
is Medical Director.
The NHS Board determines strategy, allocates resources and provides governance across
the health system. Services are delivered by Lothian University hospitals division, the Royal
Edinburgh hospital and Associated mental health services, 4 community health (and social
care) partnerships (CH(C)Ps) in City of Edinburgh, West Lothian, East Lothian and
Midlothian, and a Public Health directorate.
NHS Lothian serves a population of 850,000.
University Hospitals Division
The University Hospitals Division provides a full range of secondary and tertiary clinical
services to the populations of Edinburgh, Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian. The
Division is one of the major research and teaching centres in the United Kingdom.
Hospitals included in the Division are:
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
The Western General Hospital
The Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh
St Johns Hospital
Royal Victoria Hospital
Liberton Hospital
Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC) The hospital is situated in a residential area close
to the centre of Edinburgh and is approximately three miles from the site of the New Royal
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Infirmary and the co-located University of Edinburgh Medical School and three miles from the
Western General Hospital.
The RHSC is a 151-bedded Hospital, and is the main paediatric teaching hospital for the
South- East of Scotland providing general and specialised services on both a local and
national basis. It acts as the local paediatric referral centre for the children of Edinburgh and
surrounding areas, and as a tertiary referral centre for intensive care patients;
gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition; infectious diseases and immunology; respiratory
medicine; cardiology; nephrology; neurology; oncology; haematology; neonatal surgery;
plastic surgery; orthopaedic surgery; urological surgery and general surgery.
Hospital accommodation encompasses five theatres, a critical care unit comprising an eight
bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, six bedded High Dependency Unit and a three
bedded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. There is an excellent library facility and a modern
lecture theatre with a full range of audio-visual equipment. A new stand alone children’s
hospital, to be co-located with Edinburgh Royal Infirmary at Little France is planned to be
operational by 2017.
All services are supported by comprehensive radiology, neurophysiology, laboratory and
therapy services and there is a dedicated paediatric pharmacy with paediatric pharmacists.
The radiology department provides on site Magnetic Resonance Imaging, CT Scanning,
nuclear medicine and ultrasound.
There is a dedicated paediatric pharmacy with paediatric pharmacists.
On site laboratories provide biochemistry, haematology, services - out of hours the laboratory
service is based at the Royal Infirmary.
There are full supporting Laboratory and Diagnostic Radiology Services (including CT, MR,
Ultrasound and NM and PET scanning will be available in 2008), the Scottish poisons bureau
and treatment centre and Dept of liaison psychiatry.
The Neonatal Unit is a regional unit which provides intensive care to sick term and preterm
babies, both those delivered within the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health and those
brought in from other hospitals in the Borders, West Lothian and Fife by the dedicated
transport team. The unit is part of the South East Scotland Managed Clinical Network.
Regional units in fetal medicine, paediatric surgery and genetics are also based in Edinburgh
and reflect the varied case mix on the unit.
There are over 6500 deliveries per annum at the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health.
Each year there are over 750 admissions to the neonatal unit. The case mix is varied, with a
wide variety of clinical problems presenting in term infants, and the preterm infants include
those at the most extreme of viable gestations. There are 37 cots in the unit, with 15 cots
dedicated to the provision of intensive and high dependency care.
The unit’s commitment to ongoing outpatient neonatal care involves regular neonatal
screening, general and neurodevelopment follow-up clinics. In addition there is a team
performing weekly Bayley assessments to provide high quality neurodevelopment follow-up
data for infants with very low birth weight.
St John’s Hospital is located in the centre of Livingston, a new town about 30 minutes drive
west from Edinburgh. The hospital provides for most common specialties but does not have
emergency general surgery or orthopaedic trauma operating. The hospital has a paediatric
ward and a ten bedded level 2 neonatal care unit
Community Healthcare Partnerships
The four established Lothian Community Health (and Social Care) Partnerships serve the
population of Edinburgh, Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian.
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The Child and Family Mental Health Service
Outpatient services are based on the RHSC site with additional facilities for adolescents and
teenagers at the Young Persons Unit at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital
3. University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh was established in 1582 and is one of the largest in the United
Kingdom located on a number of prominent sites in Scotland’s capital city. It is Scotland’s
premier research University and within the top 5 Universities in Europe for its Biomedical
Sciences.
The University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine is an
internationally recognised leading force in basic-to-clinical translational research. The
College has a consistent 30-year strategy of interdisciplinary and integration of basic and
clinical sciences. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (2008), the University of
Edinburgh was top in the United Kingdom within the UoA4 category of Hospital-based
Clinical Subjects. In 2008/9, CMVM attracted over £120 million in external peer-reviewed
grant funding.
4. NHS Library and Postgraduate Facilities
There are excellent facilities on all sites.
5. Departmental Information
Department of Medical Paediatrics
General paediatric services are provided at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children for
Edinburgh City and its immediate surrounds.
There are two Medical Paediatric Wards with 38 beds in total where most medical patients
are admitted, including the Acute Receiving Unit (ARU). There is a 6-bedded High
Dependency Unit linked to an 8-bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. There is a national
PICU retrieval service for Scotland which is run in conjunction with the Royal Hospital for
Sick Children, Glasgow.
Consultant and Senior Lecturer colleagues in medical paediatrics include those with the
following paediatric sub-speciality interests:
Respiratory
Gastroenterology/Hepatology/Nutrition
Endocrine/Diabetes
Metabolic
Dermatology
Nephrology
Cardiology
Oncology
Haematology
Neurology
Rheumatology
Emergency Medicine
Infectious Diseases/Immunology/HIV
Acute General Paediatrics
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There are two medical geneticists who practice at the Hospital
There is also a highly developed community paediatric service of 12 WTE consultants for
Lothian which takes the lead in child protection and disability care.
There is an excellent teaching programme that includes weekly radiology meetings and well
attended hospital grand rounds in addition to journal clubs and departmental teaching.
Audits are encouraged and supported.
This post is designed to help replace trainee delivered care in acute paediatrics with care
delivered by trained staff.
Members of the Department
RHSC
Dr P Eunson, Clinical Director, Medical Paediatrics and A&E
Dr Steve Cunningham, Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician
Dr Don Urquhart, Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician
Dr Catherine McDougall, Consultant Respiratory & Intensive Care Paediatrician
Dr Kenny Mcleod, Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician
Dr Andrew Fall, Specialty Doctor Cystic Fibrosis
Dr Donald Brown, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Ambulatory Paediatrics
Dr Mairi Stark, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Acute General Paediatrics
Dr Laura Jones, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Infectious
Diseases/Immunology/HIV
Dr Dylan Broomfield Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Emergency Medicine
Dr Sarah Clegg, Consultant Paediatrician and Community Paediatrician
Dr Charlotte Kirk, Consultant Paediatrician and Community Paediatrician
Dr Kiran Patwardhan, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Nke Nwafor, Specialty Doctor medical paediatrics
Dr Anna Dall, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Rozi Ardill, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Nephrology
Dr Sonia Joseph, Consultant Paediatrician and Associate Director of Medical Education
Dr Claire Hathorn, Locum Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Louise Bath, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Endocrinology and Diabetes
Dr Harriet Miles, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Endocrinology and Diabetes
Dr Kathryn Noyes, Associate Specialist in Diabetes
Professor David Wilson, Professor of in Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and
Nutrition
Dr Peter Gillett, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Gastroenterology
Dr David Mitchell, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Gastroenterology
Dr Alex Baxter, Consultant in Paediatric Neurodisability
Dr Ailsa McLellan, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist
Dr Kamath Tallur, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist
Dr Jay Shetty, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist
Dr Richard Chin, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist
Dr Susan Baird, Consultant Haematologist
Dr Mark Brougham, Consultant Oncologist
Dr Angela Edgar, Consultant Oncologist
Dr Emma Johnson, Associate Specialist in Oncology
Dr Shona Mair, Associate Specialist Haematology
Dr Lesley Simpson, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist
Dr Angela Thomas, Consultant Haematologist
Professor Hamish Wallace, Consultant Oncologist
Dr Alison Cozens, Consultant in Metabolic Medicine
Dr Joyce Davidson, Consultant Paediatric Rheumatologist
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Dr Mary Cruickshank, Locum Consultant Paediatric Rheumatologist
The Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health, Edinburgh
The clinical staff includes 10 whole-time-equivalent consultant grade staff:
Dr Julie-Clare Becher: neurology, therapeutic hypothermia
Dr James Boardman: Senior Lecturer - perinatal brain injury
Dr Ewen Johnston: simulation training
Dr Chris Kissack: cardiology, preterm brain injury
Dr Edile Murdoch: perinatal medicine, perinatal risk management
Dr Gopi Menon: neonatal nutrition
Dr Paula Midgley: Senior Lecturer: endocrinology, undergraduate education
Dr David Quine: simulation training
Professor Ben Stenson: clinical lead, respiratory disease, transport lead
Dr Claire Smith: neonatal infection, patient safety
Specialist equipment held on the unit includes an ultrasound scanner with colour Doppler
facility suitable both for cranial ultrasound and echocardiography. The unit is also equipped
to offer therapeutic hypothermia and has two CritiCool cooling systems and two Brainz twochannel CFM monitors. There are two units for delivering inhaled nitric oxide.
The South East Scotland Neonatal Transport team are currently based on the site. The team
is equipped with its own dedicated ambulance which can accommodate two transport
incubators at any one time, and is able to offer in-transport therapeutic hypothermia and
inhaled nitric oxide.
There is an ongoing programme of active research on the unit, led by the consultant team
with the aid of the transport fellows and all grades of junior doctors on the unit. All members
of staff are encouraged and expected to contribute towards this research activity.
We have recently combined our quality improvement, patient safety, audit and guideline
programmes to form a Newborn Care Collaborative with the overarching aim of “getting it
right for every baby and every family every time”. All staff caring for infants within the
neonatal unit are seen as playing a vital role in achieving this aim and therefore successful
candidates will be expected to support and be actively involved in quality improvement and
patient safety initiatives.
St Johns
St John’s Hospital has a twenty-bedded inpatient ward and provides outpatient facilities,
Level 2 neonatal facilities and supports paediatric surgery in the hospital. There is currently
an FY2 and senior for medical paediatrics. There is a consultant of the week system for
acute paediatrics.
The Obstetric unit at St John’s Hospital delivers around 2800 babies per year. There is an 11
bedded special care baby unit that provides special care and high dependency care plus
short term intensive care prior to transfer of infants needing intensive care to the Simpson.
There is a 10 bedded level 2 neonatal unit - out of hours this unit is covered by specialist
neonatal consultants
Members of the Department
Dr David Valentine, Consultant Paediatrician
Dr Mariwan Babani, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Gastroenterology
Dr Karen Barclay, Associate Specialist with an interest in Neonatology
Dr Elizabeth Eaton, Specialty Doctor
Dr Dzung Nguyen, Consultant paediatrician with expertise in cardiology
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Dr Rajeeb Rashid, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Diabetes
Dr Helen Rhodes, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in
Allergy
Dr Aniela Tybulewicz, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Gastroenterology
Dr Julie Duncan, Consultant Paediatrician with an interest in Rheumatology
Dr David Cordiner, Consultant paediatrician with an interest in Allergy
6. Details of the Post
RHSC
The post holder will be responsible for undertaking duties associated with the assessment
and admission of acutely unwell children and the day to day care of medical inpatients.
Duties will include participating in consultant led ward rounds, reviewing in-patients, and full
involvement in patient management and treatment. There will be full participation in the out of
hours rota.
The out of hours rota comprises of a resident junior medical doctor (FY or GPST) , a clinical
fellow or ST1/2 and a senior trainee (ST5-8) There is a medical consultant present in the
hospital in the evenings until at least 9.30pm on weekdays.
The admission unit receives all acute admissions and there is a consultant of the week
system.
There is an excellent teaching programme that includes weekly radiology meetings and well
attended hospital grand rounds in addition to journal clubs and departmental teaching. Audits
are encouraged and supported.
RHSC and paediatric services will be co-located with adult services at Little France campus
from 2017
This is an Exposure Prone Post and evidence of the relevant immunities will be required
before starting work.
The Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health
At the neonatal unit in the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health, the clinical work will
involve providing service in the provision of intensive care to sick infants admitted to the unit,
and of clinical care to infants on the postnatal wards and in attendance at deliveries where
newborn stabilisation may be required. There are regular ward rounds led by consultant or
middle-grade staff. The successful applicant will be encouraged to participate in the
educational opportunities that are offered to doctors in training grade posts, including an
active consultant led teaching programme, journal club and multi-disciplinary meetings.
There will be opportunities to attend neonatal outpatient clinics and to have training relating
to the practical skills usual in the provision of neonatal intensive care. There is a wellestablished audit programme to which all clinical staff contribute and involvement in guideline
development and other neonatal projects is also encouraged and supported.
7. Research and Development
There is an academic department of Child Life and Health with an active research
programme led by Professor Jurgen Schwarze. There are opportunities for audits or
collaboration with research work.
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The neonatal unit at the SCRH is actively involved and committed to developing research. Dr
James Boardman is the director of the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory (JBRL) which
is funded by Piggybank Kids. The goal of the programme is to improve understanding of the
causes and consequences of perinatal brain injury associated with preterm birth and low
birth weight. Other projects in progress involve investigation of neonatal sepsis and neonatal
nutrition. The unit also contributes to national clinical trials. Interested candidates would be
welcome to discuss participation in research projects within these areas. There is also an
active programme of clinical audit on the neonatal unit and the applicant will be expected to
become involved these activities.
8. Teaching
The service has a prominent role in teaching undergraduates and postgraduates. The postholder can contribute to the undergraduate teaching programme and to the teaching of
trainee medical staff. You will participate in audit projects, which are regularly undertaken
within the general medical paediatric department.
There are daily teaching opportunities, in addition to a post graduate teaching programme for
paediatric trainees which is bleep free and curriculum mapped to the RCPCH requirements
involving workshops, lectures and bedside teaching sessions as well as weekly
multidisciplinary paediatric emergency simulation training. This programme has been
awarded “green triangle” (top 25% of UK) status from the GMC over the last 3 years .
Applicants will have a clinical / educational supervisor.
At the SCRH there is a regular programme of teaching and mentorship and educational
supervision. The unit scores highly in PMETB feedback. Simulation training takes place
regularly on the unit. There is a morning teaching programme Monday – Thursday which is
consultant led. A variety of multidisciplinary meetings take place including: weekly perinatal
meetings and monthly mortality and morbidity meetings with the obstetricians, weekly video
link meeting with the paediatric surgeons. Neonatal grand round occurs every Friday. Built
into the teaching programme are opportunities for trainees to expand their own experience of
teaching and presenting. It is expected that these opportunities are used as supervised
learning events, maximising chances to accumulate evidence for portfolio.
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9. Job Plan
NHS Lothian Indicative Job Plan
Name:
Specialty:
Principal place of work:
Edinburgh
Contract:
Rota
Managerially accountable to:
Paediatrics
Royal Hospital for Sick Children/Royal Infirmary of
Full Time
EWTD-compliant Full Shift
Clinical Director of Paediatrics, NHS Lothian
10. Contact Details
Dr Laura Jones, Consultant Paediatrician RHSC. Laura.jones@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Dr Claire Smith, Consultant Neonatologist, NHS Lothian 0131 242 2567
Claire.l.smith@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Dr Paul Eunson, Clinical Director of Paediatrics, NHS Lothian. 0131 536 0000
paul.eunson@luht.scot.nhs.uk
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11. Person Specification
Person specification for Clinical Fellows in Paediatrics
Requirements
Qualifications and
training
Essential
Fully registered with the GMC with a
license to practice.
At least two years full time (or
equivalent) postgraduate experience
Experience
Experience in general and
acute paediatrics and/ or
neonatology
Ability
Ability to take responsibility for
management of patients.
Academic
achievements
Understanding of the principles of
medical research
Teaching and audit
Demonstrable experience of
participation in clinical audit and
implementation of its findings.
Motivation
Evidence of commitment to patient
focused care, continuous professional
development, effective and efficient use
of resources.
Personal attributes
Able to work in a team with colleagues in
own and other disciplines
Effective interpersonal skills
Well organised and with good time
management skills.
Flexible and adaptable.
Revised Medical and Dental HR December 2009
April 2010
Desirable
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Presentations