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Consultants in the department currently spend approximately 85% of their time involved directly in clinical service provision and 15% undertaking supporting professional activities (audit, QA, CPD, management, research, teaching etc).  Each consultant contributes 43 weeks to the rota with remaining weeks allocated to annual leave, study leave etc. 

The advertised post is a replacement 10 PA post, NHS-based, although there may be an opportunity for a candidate with an appropriate academic profile to participate in research activities at the Newcastle University.  This would be negotiated with the university at the time of appointment. Where appropriate an application will be made for the appointee to be granted the title of Associate Clinical Lecturer in Cellular Pathology. The department undertakes a significant amount of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and you will be expected to participate in these teaching programmes.  

UROPATHOLOGY & CYTOPATHOLOGY

The urological pathology team serves a dynamic and forward thinking team of clinical urologists who deal with a wide range and complexity of patients and urological conditions.  This cutting edge clinical team is one of the busiest in the UK, performing above average numbers of complex resection cases, for both neoplastic and functional pathologies.  There is a strong multidisciplinary ethos through the team with good relationships between urologists, specialist nurses, pathologists and admin teams. The uropathology service currently has input from five consultants, each with a varying contribution to the service, depending on their other specialist commitments.  The workload of the urological pathology team is 3500-4000 specimens per year. This includes routine day-to-day urological specimens along with prostatic cores biopsies, transurethral prostate resections, radical prostatectomies, infertility testicular biopsies, orchidectomies, retroperitoneal lymph node dissections, nephrectomies, nephrouretectomies, bladder biopsies, transurethral bladder tumour resections and cystectomies.  The workload is usually shared between all five current consultants on a weekly basis, depending on their PA commitments.   A supra-regional testicular cancer and regional Urological Cancer MDTM is held weekly, and the appointee would be expected to participate as per rota commitments. This primarily involves a review of external cases, as there are robust review processes in place for local cases. Team members work closely together participating in a regular weekly huddle/consensus meeting to discuss difficult cases and operational issues. The team works in an open way with cases frequently shared for second opinions and grading consensus.  The urological pathology team is active in audit and service development and the successful applicant will be able to participate in defined clinical research projects. 

The Cytopathology team is currently composed of 5 substantive consultants, contributing to the work of the team on a daily rota. The number of non-gynaecological cytology specimens handled in 2019 was 3873. Gynaecological cytology work was discontinued in 2019. The number of non-gynaecological cytology specimens handled in 2022 was 3799.  The non-gynaecological specimens include FNAs from thyroid, lymph nodes, salivary glands, lung, breast, pancreatic cysts and other sites, as well as joint fluids, serous fluids, urine cytology and CSF, with endoscopic brushings/washings from various sites. BMS assessment is used for some image-guided samples including EUS/EBUS and plastics outpatient node FNAs, and they also report post-vasectomy semen samples.  

Within the department, you will have a high quality microscope, and a personal computer with digital dictation and the option of voice recognition.  You will also have access to the Departmental secretaries. The department has good facilities for digital photography of macroscopic and microscopic specimens.  There is also equipment and technical support for production of material for educational, audit and research presentations. The Department is in the process of introducing Digital pathology for reporting, but this will not be compulsory. 

You will be expected to participate in audit and in relevant EQA schemes.  You will also be expected to take part in continuing professional development and annual appraisal (the latter including annual job plan review).  Time and funds will be made available by the Trust for attendance of professional and educational meetings etc. and appraisal familiarisation courses are provided in-house.  Current study leave entitlement is 30 days over 3 years.  Time will be made available for necessary individual preparation to support the annual appraisal procedure. You will share responsibilities with existing consultant staff for the training and supervision of trainee medical staff, and will be required to devote time to these activities on a regular basis. You will be required to undertake administrative duties contributing to the running of the Cellular Pathology Department in co-operation with the Head of Department. 

Participation in the autopsy service is not a requirement of this post. Currently, approximately a fifth of the consultant staff undertake Coroner’s autopsies. 

You will have full and specialist registration (and a licence to practise) with the General Medical Council (GMC) or the General Dental Council (GDC) (or be eligible for registration within six months of interview). You will also be expected to hold the FRCPath or an equivalent qualification. 

Flexibility: 

In line with the Trust’s core value of placing patients at the heart of everything we do, we are developing our service provision to be responsive to the needs of our patients. To meet those needs some staff groups will be increasingly asked to work a more flexible work pattern so that they can offer services in the evening or weekend.  As a result any offer of employment to a consultant post will be subject to you agreeing to work a new more flexible pattern or working in the future if required, including evening and weekend work.

Please read attached Job Description and Person Specification.