Job overview

The post is based at Royal Stoke University Hospital (University Hospital of North Midlands).

The post is for a Locum Consultant Neonatologist to complete a team of 10 consultants to deliver neonatal care in the tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) & Maternity Unit.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a highly regarded team within an expanding neonatal Intensive care service. The post holder will provide the full range of neonatology skills working in collaboration with consultants & multidisciplinary teams in both Obstetric and Child Health Directorates.

The neonatal unit is a designated Level 3 NICU in Staffordshire, Shropshire & Black Country Newborn Network  with 26 cots; 6 intensive care, 6 high dependency and 14 special care & a Transitional Care Unit with 10 cots. 

There are approximately 6500 births per year at RSUH. We deliver around 1850 IC days per year. We care for more than 100 very low birth weight babies & provide around 2800-3000 respiratory support days per year.  We are a tertiary referral centre from other units, especially Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital, which is our link LNU. We perform all modalities of intensive care including HFOV, inhaled nitric oxide and therapeutic hypothermia.  

We are a University teaching hospital with Keele University Medical School. We are on a single site with associated paediatric specialties.   We work closely with consultants in the fetal medicine department who also support Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals.

Main duties of the job

The post holder (along with the 9 other consultant neonatologists) will share in the provision of neonatal care at UHNM. Responsibility for day-to-day management of the NICU and all associated work will be shared by the neonatal consultants. Consultant cover is required on a 24-hour 7-day week basis. The consultants are also available to provide 24/7 liaison and advice to local neonatal units via the regional specialist neonatal transport team (KIDS and NTS) as needed. This post will take an equal share of consultant of the week.  This would be 1:9 for out of hours cover and on call.    

The consultant of the week (1) is the consultant covering the intensive care room on the neonatal unit. They are available to supervise medical care on the intensive care room, liaise with nursing staff and to act as a contact with obstetric staff from 8.45am – 16:45 each weekday. All consultants contribute to the 1:9 on call rota (Resident 16:45-21:30) and on-call 21:30–09:15 – 7 days per week. There is a second consultant of the week (2) to support and cover the lower dependency areas. 

Working for our organisation

There are approximately 6500 - 6800 births per year at The Royal Stoke University Hospital. The NICU admissions per year are approximately 520, and a total of 1219 admissions to the whole neonatal service including the Transitional Care Unit. We deliver around 1850 IC days per year. We care for more than 100 very low birth weight babies and provide around 2800-3000 respiratory support days per year.  We are a tertiary referral centre from other units especially Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital which is our link LNU. The neonates requiring tertiary care are transferred by the West Midlands neonatal transport team, the East Midlands CenTre neonatal transport team or the Connect North West transport team. We perform all modalities of intensive care including HFOV, nitric oxide and therapeutic hypothermia.  All consultants perform neonatal cranial ultrasonography and currently 3 consultants provide neonatal echocardiography service.   We have the facilities to deliver therapeutic hypothermia to two babies and the facilities to deliver iNO to three babies simultaneously (across NICU and PICU) if needed.