ST GEORGE’S HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST



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ST GEORGE’S HEALTHCARE NHS TRUST

ST GEORGE’S UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (SGUL)

CHILDREN AND WOMEN’S SERVICE CENTRE

CLINICAL FELLOW IN PAEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES

JOB DESCRIPTION

PAEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES UNIT

Summary of Service Provision

There is a long history of academic and clinical infectious diseases services at St.George’s Hospital. The joint adult and paediatric infectious diseases unit opened in 1980 as part of the transfer of services to Tooting. Snow Ward was initially located in St James Wing, and then moved to a purpose built ward, Pinckney Ward, in 1990 as an integral part of the Department of Paediatrics on 5th Floor of Lanesborough Wing. Pinckney has 11 cubicles with 4 HEPA laminar flow cubicles. The unit provides a specialist inpatient and outpatient service for children with complex infections and immunodeficiency across South London and the old South Thames region. This includes children with HIV, primary immune deficiency, TB, hepatitis and other complex infections.

There are currently 3 Paediatric Infectious Diseases consultants; Dr Mike Sharland (11 sessions NHS), Dr Rana Chakraborty (11 sessions NHS) and Dr Paul Heath (5 sessions NHS, 6 sessions University). Dr Sucheta Vaidya, oncology consultant, also works with the PID team. The unit also has close collaboration with Evelina Children’s Hospital (Dr Esse Menson).

Pinckney Ward has around 90% bed occupancy throughout the year and admits approximately 600 children per year with 300 day attenders per year. Local General Practitioners or Paediatricians have referred most of these for a PID opinion, or they are children who are immuno-compromised and who are attending the ward as they are clinically unwell.

The Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit (PIDU) works closely with the adult Clinical Infection Unit, Department of Genitourinary Medicine, and Department of Medical Microbiology and Virology.

Paediatric Infectious Diseases Trainees

There are two Specialist Registrar’s working on Pinckney ward. One is the National Grid trainee in Paediatric Infectious Diseases, and the other is usually on a 6 month attachment as part of the South Thames SpR rotation. The National Grid trainee has significant secondment from the clinical area to complete the training requirements needed by the STA (). This means that they are not available for between 2-3 months of the year for clinical work.

The SpR’s are now on a full shift system, and have to be off a day before and the day after their shift. The Clinical Fellow’s primary role is to maintain the clinical continuity on Pinckney Ward. Other requirements are to support the paediatric ID clinics which run every other week and contribute to the operational development of the unit.

CLINICAL SERVICE PROVISION

Paediatric Infectious Diseases Service

The unit has an active inpatient and outpatient service. The unit also provides an active consult service to PICU, NICU and the other sub specialities based at St George’s such as Paediatric Neurology, Gastro-enterology, Paediatric Surgery, etc. The Paediatric Infectious Diseases Registrar (bleep 7410 through switchboard) is available at all times and the unit receives approximately 5-10 consults per week with around 5-10 inpatient consults per week. There is a weekly ward round with PICU and NICU, which is a joint round with the Microbiologists. There is also a separate joint meeting with adult infectious diseases and microbiology for an hour, weekly, to discuss current complex inpatient and outpatient cases. There is an academic paediatric ID meting for 2 hours every Wednesday afternoon. As the PID unit is well established at St.George’s there is an active telephone, ward and outpatient consult service with general paediatric units across the region as well as other sub specialties within the region. There is a busy Paediatric Infectious Diseases outpatient service, which provides consults on children with recurrent fever etc. We also admit many children with a fever returning from abroad with recent audits on Malaria, Typhoid etc.

Paediatric HIV Service

The PENTA Family Clinic started in St George’s in 1992. The structure of services was formalised with the publication of the report on Paediatric HIV Services by the London HIV Consortium paediatric-subgroup. This has structured the service network that has developed across South London over the course of the last 10 years. The Children’s HIV National Network (CHINN) Review 2005 published by the Department of Health lays out for the first time formal national networks for children with HIV infection.

The Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit at St George’s Hospital is the lead unit for STAR-CHIN (South Thames And Regions-Children’s HIV Network).  This is our paediatric clinical network which covers South London, the Midlands (Birmingham and Leicester), the South West (Bristol) and the North East of England (Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield) and Wales (Cardiff).  The aim of the network is to ensure that all children and families with HIV have access to the same standard of care wherever they live in the UK.  Dr Mike Sharland is the Lead Consultant for this network. The network cares for over 400 HIV infected children. Approximately 140 of these children are looked after directly by St George’s. There are shared care arrangements, for example outreach clinics at Woolwich and Mayday Hospitals; joint audit and clinical work, for example, with King’s and St Thomas’s; and clinical support, training and national conferences for the regional centres.

The focus of the service is the PENTA clinics, 2 per week, and 3 in the first week of the month. Some of these are joint clinics with the Department of Genitourinary Medicine (Dr Phillip Hay). The Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit leads all antiretroviral prescribing for STAR-CHIN with a formal protocol, and audits this annually.

The Paediatric HIV team at St George’s Hospital comprises 2 consultants, 1 nurse consultant, 1 clinical nurse specialist, 1 pharmacist, 1 administrator, and part-time psychologist and dietician input. There are monthly multi-disciplinary team antiretroviral audit meetings, psycho-social, and antenatal meetings and bi-annual service network development days. There is a considerable paediatric HIV inpatient workload, approximately 600 bed days per year and day attenders. There are 500 paediatric HIV outpatient attendances per year. All infants are now followed through the confidential HIV reporting system annually until 18 years of age. The unit also follows a large number of HIV antiretroviral exposed but negative or indeterminate status infants and children. With around 50 HIV positive mothers delivering at St George’s Hospital per year this workload has accelerated significantly over the course of the last few years. There are now approximately 250 HIV antiretroviral exposed infants being followed by the unit. There is also an active adolescent transition clinic into the adult service. The Fellow would be very involved in this service, seeing ill children on the ward, attending outpatient clinics, and undertaking audit and research projects.

Primary Immune Deficiency Service

The PIDU provides a service for paediatric immunology to South Thames and is linked through a network to the service at Great Ormond Street. A monthly immunology clinic is held at St George’s and another at Guys / St Thomas Hospital. A dedicated paediatric immunology nurse supports both clinics. The nurse provides support for inpatient and outpatient (including home) intravenous and subcutaneous immunoglobulin administration. There are currently over 20 patients receiving IVIG or SCIG. The Protein Reference Unit at St George’s (Dr Jo Sheldon) provides a comprehensive laboratory service for the investigation of primary immune deficiency. Molecular diagnostic tests are performed at Great Ormond Street.

Immunisation Advice Service

The PIDU is responsible for the immunisation advice and clinic service for South West London HA. This constitutes a fortnightly immunisation clinic and a telephone advice service. This mainly serves the local community with calls from GPs, Health Visitors, Practice Nurses and parents. The clinic sees children with more difficult immunisation problems and/or coordinates the outpatient administration of vaccines.

Haematology/Oncology Service

The Royal Marsden Hospital and St George’s paediatric unit comprise a joint Thames Paedaitric Oncology Centre (POC). There are very close collaborative links between the PIDU and The Royal Marsden. Paediatric oncology consultant Dr Vaidya works at both hospitals and has a Marsden oncology registrar supporting her at St George’s. The Paediatric Haematology Unit at St George’s has an active interest in bone marrow failure with the unit acting as a tertiary referral centre for aplastic anaemia. There is an ongoing transplantation treatment programme for aplastic anaemia on PIDU. Children who are ill with febrile neutropenia or other opportunistic infections are transferred from The Royal Marsden Hospital to St.George’s PICU or PIDU for further investigation and treatment. Trainees are therefore exposed on a regular basis to children who are severely immunocompromised relating to haematological marrow failure, chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation.

We are also an accredited Paediatric Oncology Shared Care Unit (POSCU). The PID unit is actively involved in research on febrile neutropenia and indeed has been leading on the TPOC febrile neutropenia audit. The Fellow will be very busy working with the Royal Marsden in the shared care of these very sick inpatient children. This can be very time consuming, and needs an experienced middle grade doctor. Dedicated Paediatric Oncology beds are opening at St George’s in Autumn 2007 and the Clinical Fellow will also be involved in this project.

Tuberculosis Service

St George’s is the lead centre for Tuberculosis in South West London. There is a paediatric TB Clinic both at George’s and at the Mayday Hospital, run by the PIDU. We see nearly all children diagnosed with TB in South West London in collaboration with St George’s and Mayday’s Chest Clinics. This is a formalised network of TB services with a joint protocol. Children with TB disease are seen in the monthly Paediatric TB Clinic and children with TB infection are seen in the weekly TB Contact Clinic. There are around 10-20 children with TB disease treated per year with approximately 50 children with TB infection. There are plans to make this a Family TB Clinic based in the Chest Clinic.

Hepatitis B & C Service

The care of children with Hepatitis B & C in London is currently being organised into a service network. St George’s acts as the centre for South West London/Thames region. There is a Perinatal Infection Clinic run with Dr Chris Tibbs, Adult Hepatologist, which occurs monthly for the follow-up of infants born to a Hepatitis B positive mother. The Perinatal Infection Clinic also has children on treatment for Hepatitis B and C.

Allergy Service

The allergy service at St George’s, led by Dr A Christopher, is very busy. The service is primarily district based. There is a designated paediatric allergy nurse. Challenges are undertaken on the day ward. There is a very long waiting list for allergy locally and plans are underway to develop this service over the next few years.

PAEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES POST

Working Week

Please see the enclosed timetable. There are two consultant ward rounds and three hours of joint id/microbiology clinical training each week as well as other infectious diseases collaborative consulting time. There are also joint adult and paediatric infectious diseases and microbiology academic programmes on Friday lunchtimes.

Teaching Programme

On Wednesday afternoons there is a two hour PID teaching session. All PID consultants and SpR’s and SHO’s are expected to attend as well as the microbiology consultant and other SpR’s as available. The first hour is focused on clinical cases presenting to the consult service. The second hour is more formalised teaching which follows the BPAIIG syllabus. The aim is to provide formal coverage of this syllabus over a one year rotating programme.

Audit

There are notes audit before or after all clinics. There is a continuing audit programme of inpatients on Friday mornings prior to the consultant ward round. There is an active programme of audit, many of which have been presented/published. It is anticipated that the Clinical Fellow will have an active audit and research programme. It is expected that all junior staff on the unit complete one major audit project every 12 months. The Clinical Fellow will have exactly the same expectation as the other trainees to have an active involvement in all the academic meetings, presenting and publishing at a local, national, and international level.

The unit is very protocol and audit driven. The 150 page Pinckney Ward Manual provides a very practical manual of how to look after children with a whole range of complex immunodeficiency and infections. This incorporates a large number of locally based protocols. This is available on the St George’s intranet. One of the principal responsibilities of the Clinical Fellow will be to maintain and update the protocol Manual. They will also be encouraged to develop, with the appropriate support, the PIDU website.

Special Interest

The Clinical Fellow’s main jobs will be to maintain the clinical continuity on Pinckney Ward and to attend the Paediatric ID outpatient’s clinics regularly. It is also expected that they will take the lead for the maintenance and development of one of the clinical areas (e.g. HIV, TB, Immunodeficiency, Hepatitis, etc) while working on the unit. This will allow the Fellow to develop a special area of expertise, and facilitate their involvement in audit and research projects. This development will be tailored as far as possible to the specific interest of the Fellow.

TIMETABLE

|Monday |Tuesday |Wednesday |Thursday |Friday |

| | | | | |

|09.15 |09.15 |09.15 |08.30 paediatric journal|09.15 Consultant ward |

|Consultant ward round* |Clinical Fellow/SpR |Clinical Fellow/SpR ward|club |round and audit of ward |

| |ward round* |round* |(Child Health Seminar |cases* |

| | | |Room)+ | |

| | |3rd wed of month | | |

| | |immunology clinic~ |09.15 | |

| | |(paediatric OP) |Clinical Fellow/SpR ward| |

| | | |round* | |

| | | | | |

| | | |09.30 | |

| | | |HIV clinic~ (2nd and 4th| |

| | | |thurs of month in GU | |

| | | |Med) | |

| | | | | |

|12.30 |13.00 |14.00 |13.30 infectious disease|13.00 paediatric/Adult |

|psychosocial mtg* |paediatric XR mtg* |NICU and PICU infection |clinic / TB clinic* ~ |ID/micro seminar |

|(Pinckney ward) | |ward rounds* |(2nd and 4th thurs of | |

| | | |month) | |

|13.30 microbiology round* |14.00 |15.00 | | |

|(micro dept) |Monthly family |POSCU mtg |13.30 | |

| |hepatitis clinic |(3rd Tuesday month) (O+G|HIV clinic~ | |

| | |seminar room)* |(1st and 3rd thurs of | |

| | | |month in paed OP) | |

| | |15.30-1700 infectious | | |

| | |disease meeting+ | | |

NB: The average weekly hours of work is less than 48 hours and therefore this post falls within the European Working Time Directive.

Person specification for the post of Clinical Fellow in Paediatric ID

| | | |

| |Essential |Desirable |

| | | |

|QQ |_ Medical degree |_ BSC |

| |_ MRCP (Paeds) | |

| | | |

|Clinical Skills |_ Broad experience in Paediatrics |_ Experience in Paed ID |

| | | |

|Management Skills |_ Willingness to contribute to management | |

| | | |

|Audit Skills |_ Be willing to assist in the development audit |_ Have taken part in audit |

| |and of an effective clinical audit programme |_ To be computer literate |

| | | |

|Clinical Governance |_ To have an understanding of the basic principles|_ To be committed to building a framework for|

| |of clinical governance |monitoring and improving clinical quality |

| | |_ To build a clinical practice which is |

| | |evidence based |

| | | |

|Teaching Skills |_ Must be an enthusiastic teacher | |

| |_ Interested in teaching both undergraduate and | |

| |postgraduates | |

| | | |

|Academic Achievement |_ Experience of research projects |_ Evidence of completed research work |

| | | |

| | | |

|Personal Skills |_ Ability to work as a member of a team | |

| |_ Evidence of good communication skills | |

| |_ Evidence of organisation and motivation | |

| |_ Probity | |

| | | |

|Physical Requirements |_ Pre-evaluation health screening | |

NB: Essential- A requirement that all candidates MUST meet

Desirable- A requirement that is not necessarily needed to be appointed to the post

Direct Supervisor

Dr Rana Chakraborty

Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases

PAEDIATRIC MEDICINE SERVICES AT ST GEORGE’S HOSPITAL

The Department

Paediatric Medicine and Specialities

The Paediatric Department provides a comprehensive level of services at district (secondary) level and specialist (tertiary) level. In addition to Paediatric Surgery these include Infectious Diseases, Haematology, Neurology, Endocrinology, Respiratory, Metabolic Diseases and Gastroenterology. Inpatient paediatric oncology services from the Royal Marsden Hospital are shortly to relocate to St George’s.

Paediatric Infectious Diseases (PID) is a well established speciality and one of the 3 national centres for PID, with a large throughput of patients including children with HIV and other immunodeficiencies (Dr Sharland, Dr Heath and Dr Chakraborty). The Neurology Department (Dr Clarke & Dr Fallon) is the main provider of this specialty to South Thames (West) and patients include children with acute neuromuscular disorders, encephalopathy and epilepsy. They will shortly be joined by a third Neurologist. The Paediatric Endocrinology Service is well established with a WTE consultant endocrinologist (Dr Albanese).

Metabolic opinion is available from Dr Bain and other special interests in the Paediatric Department are Gastroenterology (Dr Mitton), Respiratory Paediatrics (Dr Crowley) and Asthma and Allergy (Dr Christopher). Child Psychiatry services are provided at district level. The Child Development Centre (under the direction of Dr McGowan) has a multidisciplinary team involved in the care of children with special needs.

Paediatric Outpatients

There is a dedicated paediatric suite with its own nursing and clerical staff. There are numerous specialist clinics, including diabetes, asthma, endocrinology, infectious diseases, gastroenterology and immunology. Urgent Paediatric referrals are seen in a “rapid referral clinic”.

Paediatric Inpatients

The inpatient paediatric facilities are made up of five paediatric wards - a day case ward (Jungle), a surgical ward (Nicholls), a medical ward, including a respite care facility (Frederick Hewitt), a paediatric infectious diseases ward (Pinckney) and a 6 bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Paediatric Educational Activities

There are a number of academic and separate team meetings in the department. These meetings frequently involve members of other disciplines. There is a regular programme of audit meetings.

St Georges is a teaching hospital, and active participation in teaching of undergraduate medical students, as well as postgraduate teaching of junior paediatric staff and paediatric nurses will be an integral part of this post.

As well as teaching, examination and accreditation duties will be required. They will contribute to postgraduate and continuing medical education activity. Funding is available for personal CPD activities.

Accident and Emergency Department

There is a dedicated paediatric area, which has recently been upgraded to accommodate a larger area for children. At present the department closes at 11pm but work is taking place to open the area 24 hours a day.

Community Paediatric Services

The Child Development Centre (under the direction of Dr McGowan) has a multidisciplinary team involved in the care of children with special needs.

Obstetric and FMU Services

There are over 4000 deliveries annually at St George’s from the local population and regional referrals for prenatally diagnosed problems. The Perinatal Unit comprises the Fetal Medicine Unit, High Risk Obstetrics, Neonatology, Genetics and Paediatric Surgery and these teams meet regularly. The FMU is extremely active and receives an increasing number of referrals for regional opinion plus some referrals from further a field; the FMU performs nearly 3000 antenatal scans annually. Dr Thilaganathan, the Director of the FMU performs many in-utero interventions e.g. twin-twin lasering, in-utero transfusions and pleural drains for effusions. Dr Carvalho, Fetal Cardiologist, does sessions at St George’s and the Royal Brompton Hospitals and thus provides antenatal and postnatal care for babies with congenital heart disease.

Perinatal Pathology

St George’s has two perinatal pathologists who also provide the regional perinatal pathology service; there are regular meetings with them about complex FMU and Neonatal pathology cases.

Neonatal Unit

The Neonatal Unit at St George’s Hospital is a Level 3 centre (with Neonatal surgery) and is the lead centre for the South West London Neonatal Network which includes Kingston, Mayday, Epsom and St Helier Hospitals. The network has almost 20,000 deliveries each year and over 4000 of these deliver at St George’s. In addition, St George’s provides some specialist neonatal and surgical services for neighbouring networks over a large geographical area which extends down to the south coast. This region has an annual delivery rate of about 40000 per annum and a population of about 3 million.

Clinical Genetics

Clinical laboratory genetic services are coordinated by the Regional Clinical Geneticists under Dr Elmslie with 7 consultant clinical geneticists.

Other Supporting Paediatric Services

Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy, Dieticians, Occupational Therapists, Audiology, Echocardiography, Neurophysiology, Pharmacy.

Medical and Business

The Paediatrics Department is part of the Children and Women’s directorate which is led by Angela Helleur, General Manager, and the Clinical Director, Dr Mike Sharland.

Paediatric Staff

Professor Dafydd Walters General Paediatrics

Dr Mike Sharland Infectious Diseases/HIV and Clinical Director for Children & Women’s services

Dr Rana Chakraborty Infectious Diseases/HIV and Clinical Tutor for Paediatrics

Dr Paul Heath Infectious Diseases/Immunology

Dr Sucheta Vaidya Oncology

Dr Suzanne Crowley General Paediatrics/Respiratory

Dr Jonathan Round Paediatric Intensive Care and Clinical Lead Paediatrics

Dr Linda Murdoch Paediatric Anaesthetics and Intensive Care

Dr Mark Farrar Paediatric Anaesthetics and Intensive Care

Dr Murray Bain Metabolic and Endocrine Disorders

Dr Sally Mitton Gastroenterology and Nutrition

Dr Antonia Clarke Paediatric Neurology

Dr Penny Fallon Paediatric Neurology

Dr Assunta Albanese Paediatric Endocrinology

Dr Anne Christopher Paediatric Respiratory/Asthma/Allergy

Dr Sarah Thurlbeck Ambulatory Paediatrics

Mr Keith Holmes Paediatric Surgery

Miss Su-Anna Boddy Paediatric Surgery

Mr Eric Nicholls Paediatric Surgery

Mr Bruce Okoye Paediatric Surgery

Professor Michael Patton Regional Medical Genetics

Professor Shirley Hodgeson Cancer Genetics

Dr Sahar Mansour Clinical Genetics

Dr Anand Saggar Clinical Genetics

Dr Tessa Homfray Clinical Genetics

Dr Meriel McEntaggart Clinical Genetics

Dr Frances Elmslie Clinical Genetics

Dr Sarah Ball Paediatric Haematology

Miss Karen Daley Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon

Mr Neel Mohan Locum Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon

Dr Tina Sim Community Paediatrics

Dr Daphne Keen Community Paediatrics

Dr Marion McGowan Community Paediatrics

Dr Sandra Calvert Neonatology

Dr Anthony Williams Neonatal Paediatrics and Nutrition

Dr Nigel Kennea Neonatal

Junior Paediatric Staff

1 Lecturer (Honorary Registrar) General Paediatrics

1 Lecturer (Honorary Registrar) Community Paediatrics

11 Specialist Registrars All on rotation in South Thames Region

(4 in Neonatal Medicine)

7 Senior House Officers Neonatal Unit

10 Senior House Officers General Paediatrics/Paediatric Surgery/Paediatric

Infectious Diseases/Paediatric Intensive Care

(including 1 GPVTS Trainee)

St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust

St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust is one of the largest healthcare units in the United Kingdom accommodating around 1170 beds and treating around 80,000 inpatient and day cases, and over 300,000 outpatients annually. The Trust employs over 4000 staff incorporating over 700 Medical and Dental Staff. It provides general acute services together with specialty services including neurosciences, cardiothoracic, and specialist children’s services.

St George’s Hospital is the main teaching hospital in the western sector of the South Thames, and as such has developed links with most district general hospitals throughout South Thames West, and supports a significant training programme for junior doctors who rotate through the Trust.

The Trust is on three sites; St George’s Hospital, the base for acute general medicine and surgical services, the Wolfson Neurorehabilitation Centre in Wimbledon and the Bolingbroke Hospital for care of the elderly patients in Battersea. In 2003 Atkinson Morley’s Hospital relocated to the Tooting site. The new purpose-built wing is shared by Neurosciences and Cardiothoracic Services. Accommodation is arranged over four floors, around inner courtyards and incorporates 233 inpatient and day-case beds, eight operating theatres, and a range of state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment facilities.

The Trust serves a resident population of about 300,000 and sits within the South West London Strategic Health Authority and serves six local Primary Care Groups.

ORGANISATION

The Trust board is chaired by an independent chair and in addition there are five non-executive directors from outside the NHS including some from Industry and Commerce. The Trust is made up of three Divisions: Division one consists of Surgery, Cancer, Neurosciences, Theatre and Anaesthetics, Division two consists of Medicine and Cardiothoracic, and Division three consists of Children and Women’s, Diagnostics and Therapy Services.

Some of the specialities within each Division are:

Children & Women’s

Paediatric medicine and surgery; gynaecology; specialist fetal medicine; neonatology; obstetrics; medical genetics; and clinical psychology.

Medical Services

General medicine; communicable diseases; genito-urinary medicine; diabetes/endocrinology; oncology; bone marrow transplantation; chest medicine; gastroenterology; renal medicine and transplantation; haematology; dermatology and hypertension, rheumatology, geriatric medicine (acute and rehabilitation services); and critical care.

Cancer Services

St George’s and the Royal Marsden Hospital form the Joint Cancer Centre for SW London. St. George’s is the primary provider for complex cancer surgery and also provides chemotherapy, haemato-oncology including bone marrow transplants and cancer clinical genetics. The Cancer Service Centre co-ordinates the provision of cancer services across St. George's.

Surgical Services

Ear, nose & throat; audiology; ophthalmology; vascular surgery; urology; general surgery; trauma and orthopaedics; maxillofacial and dental surgery; plastic surgery; theatres; anaesthetics; and Accident & Emergency. Includes a range of specialist tertiary services in orthopaedics (pelvic reconstruction) and is the main ENT inpatient base for South West London.

Cardiothoracic Services

Cardiology; cardiac surgery; heart & lung transplantation and thoracic surgery.

Neuroscience Services

Neurosurgery; neuroradiology; neurology; neurorehabilitation; neuroanaesthetics and neuropathology.

Professional & Scientific

Clinical biochemistry; medical microbiology; haematology; histopathology; pharmaceutical services; medical physics; diagnostic radiology, PRU/Immunology, Breast Screening.

Therapy Services

Dietetics, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Chaplaincy.

Bed Management and Emergency Access

Including Social Work.

Operational Management

In addition, the Divisions are supported by the following Directorates:

Finance, Human Resources Operations

Information & Computing Estates Nursing

St George’s University of London

St George’s University of London together with St George’s Hospital is housed in integrated modern buildings in a large joint campus. It is a research-based independently governed and funded specialised health-focused University with academic departments in Bio, Behavioural, Clinical and Social Science. The University is closely integrated with the Hospital’s extensive secondary and tertiary clinical NHS provision.

Teaching

There are currently over 850 students registered on the five-year MB BS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) course leading to qualification in medicine, and 40-50 students on intercalated BSc courses. Other courses include a 3-4 year BSc Biomedical Sciences (25 annual entry). There are multi-professional taught postgraduate courses in a range of subjects. The University’s Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, managed jointly with Kingston University, (Dean Professor Mike Pittilo – Parasitology), has undergraduate and diploma students in Physiotherapy, Radiography, Nursing and Midwifery and Social Work. In October 2000, the School introduced an innovative 4-year route to Medicine. This Graduate Entry Programme, for 35 entrants annually from any first degree discipline, is in addition to the existing 5/6 year undergraduate course.

The University has a policy of encouraging interaction between students of different disciplines including, since 1998, a Common Foundation Programme for all Medical, Physiotherapy, Radiography and some Nursing students. Professor Sean Hilton, General Practice chairs the Undergraduate Medicine Committee, which is also responsible for the BSc Biomedical Sciences and graduate-entry medical courses.

In addition to contributions in their own subject areas, staff have the opportunity to contribute to education more generally through offering study modules, through service as tutors to junior problem-based learning sets or as course organisers or examiners or in the selection of future students. Quality of teaching is a high priority and appropriate teaching is provided for those participating. All consultants in the associated teaching hospitals and trusts have one session allocated to teaching on MB BS courses and may, by agreement, also contribute to non-medical provision.

Research

Research interests on the combined University and Hospital site are wide-ranging and increasingly strong, (a 70% increase in external grants and contracts announcements has been achieved since 1997) encompassing a spectrum from basic science investigations to applied clinical and health services research. It is the University’s explicit intention to link basic and clinical research in order to capitalise on their co-location on a single site. The University has a strong tradition of giving younger investigators the intellectual space to develop their careers. Positive interdisciplinary and interdepartmental interactions are the norm.

Research policy is the responsibility of the University’s Research and Development Committee chaired by the Dean of R & D (Professor Tom Bolton - Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology). It works closely with the Trust’s Research Committee chaired by its Director of Research (Professor John Camm – Cardiology). Research grant administration is provided by a joint Trust and University Research Office.

About a third of the 150 senior academic staff of the University focus their research in the basic science area including basic work in clinical departments. Many of the basic science research staff have research assistants and/or PhD students and are in receipt of external funding from Research Councils and Charities. As a group these were rated 4 in the last Research Assessment Exercise. A group of similar size is active in clinical research in a variety of areas. This group includes Infectious Diseases and Cardiological Sciences, both of which were flagged as being of special excellence in the last Research Assessment Exercise and have recently received further investment. About 40 staff in Public Health and related disciplines are research active. These include Epidemiology which was flagged as being of special excellence in the last Research Assessment Exercise. Recently new appointments have been initiated in this area with the aim of strengthening research teams working in public health, primary care, and health services research. In addition to some 150 tenured research active senior staff, there are about 200 research assistants and 140 PhD, MD and other research students (both full and part-time).

Funding for research comes mainly from external sources which are very varied and include the Research Councils, major charities, a wide spectrum of specialist charities, pharmaceutical and other industrial sponsors. Competitive bids are encouraged for funding of equipment, repairs, maintenance contracts or other, often multi-user, facilities by the Equipment Committee which is a sub-committee of the Research & Development Committee.

Research on the site is nurtured by several recently formed informal theme groups (e.g. in Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Intracellular Pathogens and Molecular Medicine) which organise open days with poster presentations and invited lectures. They meet at interval and are run by elected organising committees. Their aim is to co-ordinate research in their area of interest and to draw together all those on site with a common interest in the theme and to encourage collaborations and organise joint grant applications. The Trust is a portfolio-funded institution of the London Regions’ NHS Directorate with formal commitments to research in the above themes. Other promising research is supported though a “small group and emerging research” category.

There are a total of about 150 researchers on site with close links at the clinical level to research and patient bases in General Practices around the south-west of London, and in associated hospitals. In addition, Pathfinder NHS Trust provides a large psychiatric patient base at the nearby Springfield Hospital. There are also good links with St Helier Hospital as well as with a number of other hospitals in the South London area.

Organisation

The University is governed by a Council (Chair, Baroness Cumberlege) and is managed by an Executive Committee comprising the Principal (Chair – Professor Robert Boyd - Paediatrics), the Deans, the Heads of Administration (School Secretary, Catherine Swarbrick), and an elected ex officio element including the Trust’s Medical Director. The University’s supreme academic body is the Academic Board (Chair, Professor Joe Collier – Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology).

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