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Job overview

High Dependency Care continues to evolve as a specialty with exciting opportunities for staff to develop. The “ Getting it Right First Time” critical care review is to see the formalization of level 2 critical care beds within tertiary and some district general hospitals, in a hub and spoke model.

 This is an exciting opportunity to join the tertiary HDU team, within Critical Care at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. This is a busy 15-bed level 2 HDU which admits a broad range of patients include cardiology, general and specialty medical and surgical paediatric patients, including post-operative patients. The HDU is geographically located next to the 21-bed regional Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the teams work closely together to facilitate the step-up of deteriorating patients and the step-down of recovering patients. The unit admits approximately 650 patients a year, most of whom will require level 2 critical care interventions.

Main duties of the job

This post will suit a post CCT Paediatrician or a Progress+ Level 2 Paediatric trainee as an OOPE to develop their critical care skills which can be applied to a District General Hospital setting or as part of their High Dependency Care (HDC) SPIN. The successful candidate will work alongside an team of HDU trained ACPs to form a hybrid middle grade rota working alongside HDU Consultants to deliver clinical care to some of the sickest patients ranging from general paediatrics to specialty medical and surgical patients. There will also be extensive opportunities to be involved in clinical governance activities and develop leadership and management skills.

This is a new post which is part of the development of the HDU medical team. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to gain valuable level 2 HDU experience as well as provide useful input into the development of the HDU Clinical Fellow role. The clinical commitment will be entirely on HDU and the successful candidate will not be expected to provide cover on the General Paediatric rota for the wider hospital.

Working for our organisation

As one of Europe’s biggest and busiest children’s hospitals, at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, we treat everything from common illnesses to highly complex and specialist conditions. In addition to our main hospital site, we offer paediatric services at a number of community sites and hold local clinics across Merseyside, Cumbria, Shropshire, Wales and the Isle of Man. We also provide specialist inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs in our recently relocated and newly opened state of the art facility.

Alder Hey has a thriving research portfolio and leads research into children’s medicines, infection, inflammation and oncology. We are becoming recognised as one of the world’s leaders in children’s healthcare and research. We contribute to public health, lead cutting-edge research and teach the next generation of children’s specialists. Alongside this is our Innovation Hub, a dedicated space where clinicians and industries can come together to create new products and technologies.

We know that a children’s hospital is different and that our job is more than just treating an illness. To us, every child is an individual. As well as giving them the very best care, we set out to make them feel happy, safe and confident as they play, learn and grow. At Alder Hey we are here to look after a child and their family and that includes mums, dads, brothers and sisters.