There is a full-time and part-time specified purpose appointment on a POCC Contract by the HSE to be based in Connolly Hospital 

During the appointment the successful candidate will, under the supervision of the Consultant / Clinical Director / Employer, participate in and deliver a quality health care service.

Appointees will be required to actively engage in continuing professional education and development in accordance with organisational / professional requirements.

Bringing community health services and hospitals together means we can take a more patient-centred approach to healthcare. HSE Dublin and North East provides health and social care to North Dublin, Louth, Meath, Monaghan and most areas of Cavan.

HSE Dublin and North East Region includes the following hospitals;

• Beaumont Hospital
• Cavan General Hospital
• Connolly Hospital
• Louth County Hospital
• Monaghan General Hospital
• Mater Misericordiae University Hospital
• National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh
• Our Lady’s Hospital Navan
• Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital
• Rotunda Hospital 

Connolly Hospital

Connolly Hospital is located in the West Dublin Village of Blanchardstown. It services a catchment population of 331,000 in Dublin West (including Finglas West and Lucan), North Kildare and South County Meath, and is one of the fastest growing catchment population areas in the country. Connolly Hospital is a 400 bed Dublin Academic Teaching Hospital providing a range of acute medical and surgical clinical services, national Bowel Screen services, acute psychiatric services, psychiatry of old age residential and day services designated residential centres for older persons care, older person day care, outpatient services, diagnostic and support services. Emergency acute general clinical services are provided on a 365-day, 24 hour basis.

Standard Duties and Responsibilities for all Consultant posts are as per Section 4 and Section 10 of the POCC23.

Other Duties involve:

Clinical Responsibilities

•  To provide clinical leadership in the Resuscitation of seriously ill or injured patients presenting to the Emergency Department.
• To provide “frontline” clinical care for patients attending the Emergency Department, including those in the Ambulatory Stream.
• To develop best practice Clinical Care Guidelines.
• To use Evidence Based Medicine to support the introduction or withdrawal of medical therapies, medications, interventions or practices for patients attending the Emergency Department.
• To provide “shop-floor” support for junior doctors, other clinicians and nurses caring for patients presenting to the ED.
• To work with colleagues within the Hospital and Emergency Care Networks to provide high quality clinical care in a timely manner.
• Promote the welfare of minority groups, vulnerable and marginalised patients

Operational Responsibilities 

• Whilst “on-call”, to conduct twice daily “Handover” between day, evening and night staff to ensure compliance
• To optimise the Patient Experience Time for all patients attending the Emergency
• Department, including patients who are referred for specialist opinion and those discharged from the ED. This includes optimising waiting times, patient assessment and investigations, the decision making processes and the referral process.
• To liaise with senior nursing/operations management to ensure prompt patient flow through the ED.
• To ensure that the EMP’s Key Performance Indicators are met.
• To engage with patient safety initiatives (e.g. “left before completion of treatment” guideline, x-ray reporting processes) in a timely manner.
• To monitor performance within the department and identify obstacles/build on strengths to ensure the optimum performance of the department and escalate delay to appropriate stakeholders such as clinical director for medicine/surgery/operations team/nursing team.

Strategic Responsibilities 

• To take a pro-active role in the development of the Emergency Department and the Hospital.
• To participate in Clinical Operational Group meetings at departmental level and ED performance meetings with the Hospital’s Senior Management Team.
• To engage with the recommendations of the Emergency Medicine Programme and to assume responsibilities for key areas, in collaboration with the other Emergency Medicine consultants in the department.
• To work with the other stakeholders in the new Hospital Group and Emergency Care Networks to ensure that the strategies are developed to ensure that high quality care is provided to patients attending Emergency Departments within the group.
• To engage with the Hospital’s Clinical Governance framework, Risk Management and Patient Services Department to provide safe, quality patient care in a timely manner.
• To seek greater efficiencies within the system whilst improving patient care.
• To promote a culture whereby all staff, feel empowered to engage with change management processes within the department and take responsibility for the implementation of change.

Educational/Training Responsibilities 

• To support the educational and training needs of medical trainees and non-trainees, medical students, nursing staff/students and allied health professionals, including pre-hospital practitioners.
• To develop an “educational ethos” within the department that optimises educational opportunities.
• To mentor staff and students, that is, to conduct regular performance assessments and provide structured guidance.
• To promote the specialty of Emergency Medicine as an attractive and sustainable career choice.
• To provide assistance with career development, including, but not limited to CV development, progression onto training schemes, exam preparation, provide Audit and Research opportunities and develop presentation and leadership skills.
• To develop a culture of respect for all healthcare workers and promote teamwork and interdisciplinary work.
• Participate in Trainee Education, Appraisal and Interviewing

Academic Responsibilities 

• To develop special interest aspects of EM as appropriate to one’s competencies, the department and the hospital.
• To promote and develop Audit and Research opportunities for all staff and students within the Department.
• To encourage “Critical Thinking” and an Evidence based approach to Clinical Care.
• To support local, national and international research work within the Hospital and Emergency Medicine
• To teach the Medical, Nursing and Allied Health Students within the department, the Hospital and the RCSI.

Administrative 

• To engage with the processes required to ensure a safe level of clinical staffing within the department at all times.
• To participate in Departmental and Hospital meetings and activities
• To respond to patient feedback and engage in Systems Analysis Reviews
• To participate in the collection, analysis and the reporting of data necessary for quality assurance activities in the ED and for other hospital and ECN services.
• Engage in clinical audit activity and provide leadership in multidisciplinary clinical audit in the ED.
• To ensure optimal communication with all medical, management and support services in the hospital, with General Practitioners, Community Care Services and with external agencies relevant to emergency care.
• To support any local or national IT infrastructural

Other

• Undertake Child Protection duties associated with the role of Consultant in EM and services provided at the hospital.
• Ongoing participation in Major Incident Planning for the ED and the hospital.
• Participate in Major Incident and Pre-hospital responses outside the hospital as appropriate to one’s professional competency and skills in this area, if requested to do so on behalf of the Hospital and within the governance of HSE.
• Actively engage in Continuing Professional Development and comply with Professional Competence Assurance requirements.

The above is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to him/her from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post while in office.

Job Description 

Professional Qualifications

Registration as a specialist in the Specialist Division of the Register of Medical Practitioners maintained by the Medical Council in Ireland in the specialty of Emergency Medicine.

Entry to competition / recruitment process

No candidate will be appointed as a Medical Consultant unless (s)he is registered as a Specialist in the Specialist Division of the Register of Medical Practitioners maintained by the Medical Council of Ireland.

Age

Age restriction shall only apply to a candidate where he/she is not classified as a new entrant (within the meaning of the Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2004). A candidate who is not classified as a new entrant must be under 65 years of age on the first day of the month in which the latest date for receiving completed application forms for the office occurs.

Health

A candidate for and any person holding the post must be fully competent and capable of undertaking the duties attached to the post and be in a state of health such as would indicate a reasonable prospect of ability to render regular and efficient service.

Character

A candidate for and any person holding the post must be of good character.

Skills, competencies and/ or knowledge 

• Demonstrate evidence of ability to provide high quality evidence based frontline emergency care to the diverse patient population.
• Demonstrate considerable leadership and experience in quality improvement, change management and patient advocacy.
• Demonstrate the ability to supervise junior medical staff providing them with an evidence-based framework to patient care over the large range of clinical conditions presenting to the Emergency department.
• Demonstrate the ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team in a high-pressure environment.
• Demonstrate excellent educational skills with particular emphasis on undergraduate and postgraduate emergency medicine teaching.
• Demonstrate ability to manage deadlines and effectively handle multiple tasks.
• Demonstrate competence in data management and the ability to use that data to drive improvements in education, training and service delivery.
• Demonstrate effective communication skills including: the ability to present information in a clear and concise manner; the ability to facilitate and manage groups through change management processes; the ability to effectively manage a team.
• Demonstrate experience in audit, research, oral presentations and publication.
• Demonstrate excellent leadership and people management skills.
• Demonstrate innovation, initiative and success at implementing change and use ICT systems to demonstrate the effectiveness of those interventions.