Expert information and resources
We are the largest and busiest children’s hospital in the UK with 371 paediatric beds. A further 60 neonatal cots also operate, within the same building, in the tertiary neonatal unit of Saint Mary’s Hospital.
The single site Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH) opened in June 2009. We provide general paediatric services for the local population and tertiary paediatric services for a large part of the North West of England and beyond. The hospital is situated on the south-eastern corner of the Manchester University Foundation Trust (MFT) site and benefits from easy access to and support from specialists such as ophthalmology, obstetrics & vascular surgery who are co-sited in the adult divisions of the trust.
RMCH is recognised as a Children’s Major Trauma Centre for the North West seeing approximately 150 ISS>9 patients each year. Full laboratory and both diagnostic and interventional radiological support is provided. MR and CT scanners are available 24 hours a day. RMCH plays an important role in medical teaching. It is the major paediatric teaching hospital for the University of Manchester.
Services provided
- Neonatal surgery
- Cardiology
- Neonatal Intensive Care
- Paediatric Surgery
- Gastroenterology
- Paediatric Emergency Department
- Paediatric Urology including bladder extrophy
- Nephrology & renal transplantation
- Paediatric Intensive Care
- Otolaryngology including airway surgery
- Maxillofacial surgery
- Dental surgery
- Neurosurgery
- Neurology
- Radiology
- Spinal surgery
- Paediatric Oncology & Haematology
- Orthopaedic Surgery
- The Metabolic Unit
- Plastics – including cleft lip & palate and burns
- Respiratory Medicine
- Regional Paediatric Burns Unit
- Ophthalmic surgery
- Paediatric Endocrinology
- Clinical Genetics
Duties of the post
Duties will be based at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospitals as a member of the Anaesthesia Team. The successful candidate will be exposed to the full range of specialities available at the children’s hospital. During this time you should try and see a wide range of children undergoing multiple different procedures. The job of an anaesthetist is to provide peri-operative care to patients in the safest way possible. Individual patient care is required with a family centred approach. This includes pre-operative assessment, peri-operative anaesthetising and post-operative pain management strategies. An opportunity to work on PICU and/or NWTS may be available by mutual agreement.
As a clinical fellow in paediatric anaesthesia there is flexibility to ensure both your learning needs and the service provision. Educational supervision and support will be provided using face-to-face teaching via a named educational supervisor who will help you determine your learning agreement for your placement. You will also have access to trained mentors and expected to maintain the new RCoA e-portfolio for revalidation and career progression as well as the Trust appraisal process.
Duration of the post
This post is for an initial period of six months with possible extension to twelve months.
About the department
The department consists of 36 anaesthetic consultants.
The department provides anaesthesia and acute pain management services for the full range of specialities offered at the Children’s Hospital.
To enable the new arrangements for higher specialist paediatric anaesthetic training, all anaesthetic trainees within the Manchester HEENW rotate through RMCH for at least 3 months. There are 16 trainees for each 3 months.
Anaesthesia is provided for children both within the Children’s theatres and at other sites within the trust, including the Burns Unit theatre, the Eye Hospital, X-ray department, and Oncology clinic. The department also provides services for paediatric patients at Trafford General Hospital and the radiotherapy department at the Christies Hospital, with future developments of providing anaesthetic care for Proton Beam therapy starting August 2018.
There is a paediatric anaesthetic consultant on call 24 hours per day, and there are daytime CEPOD, dedicated Neonatal CEPOD lists as well as Trauma and Burns lists.
Department work load
The department undertakes approximately 11,000 anaesthetics per year. There are approximately 750 intensive care admissions per year.
Teaching and education
There are once weekly Anaesthetic Department teaching sessions. There are also bi-monthly joint education days with Alder Hey and other children’s Hospitals.
In 2017 the department launched a MSc in Paediatric Anaesthesia (3 year part time course) with Manchester University. This is the first MSc in paediatric anaesthesia in the world. During the year placement dependent on funding it would be possible for a successful candidate to work towards credits for the MSc.
Audit
The appointee will be expected to participate in audits and the development of protocols and care pathways specific to the service. Clinical Fellows are expected to be aware of the principles of clinical governance and to contribute to the aims of Paediatric Anaesthetic Department and the achievement of ACSA accreditation.
Any research interests can be discussed and agreed on a case-by-case basis.