Consultant Paediatrician - With Respiratory Medicine Interest

A Vacancy at Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

This appointment is a full-time substantive replacement post with an interest in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine (and preferable some allergy experience) based on the Bedford Hospital site. We would encourage anyone looking for flexible working or less than full time to apply as this may be able to be accommodated.

The successful candidate will join a team of 11 paediatric consultants at Bedford Hospital. The team provide 1 in 10 paediatric attending and on call cover to general Paediatrics and Special Care Neonatal Unit. They would also cover three neonatal consultant weeks in a year.

It is expected that the post holder, once appointed, will work in partnership with the existing Consultant Paediatricians, as well as the cross-site subspecialty Respiratory MDT team to provide a safe and resilient service.

The Paediatric service is based at Riverbank Unit and includes a Children’s Assessment Unit, Inpatient Ward, Ambulatory Care and a dedicated Children’s OPD on site. The Children’s Emergency Department as part of the general Emergency Department has been redeveloped to have a dedicated space with a separate waiting area. The department has close working links with a number of tertiary centres including Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Closing Date

02.08.26

Assessment date

Week Commencing 24.08.26

Interview Date

07.09.26

1. Duties and Responsibilities

· Maintenance of the highest clinical standards in the management of Paediatric and Neonatal patients

· To share, with colleagues in the Paediatric Department the management of children requiring emergency review, assessment, and admission to the Paediatric Unit

· To share with consultant colleagues in providing the on-call non-resident out-of-hours rota

· Teaching and training of resident and locally employed doctors, nursing staff and medical students

·To support speciality specific training and development

· To actively participate in both departmental and Trust matters concerning Clinical Governance and audit

· To have responsibility for and actively participate in continuing professional development (CPD)

· To lead on specialty specific guideline developments, audits, peer review preparations, continue and strengthen MDT working locally, cross-site and with the Speciality Networks

· To share with colleagues in the department and trust speciality knowledge and experience.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology.

Our Values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job.

This post is part of a friendly and enthusiastic team of 10 General Paediatricians providing out of hours, inpatient and outpatient care for local children (+2 consultants not on the on call rota). The unit aims to deliver a consultant led service. The appointee will provide much needed respiratory input.

The appointee will be required to attend on the ward and support acute admissions on CAU as outlined in the table above. They will also have an average of 2 clinics per week when not providing acute inpatient care. For the purpose of Job planning a year is calculated as 42 weeks, this allows for A/L and S/L.

The Trust is part of the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Health and Care Partnership (Integrated Care System), which is now part of the Central East ICB cluster. As a result of this, the successful candidate may be required to adapt their job plan in the future to work across more than one site within the area; this may also include delivering aspects of care in community settings which supports the Trust’s vertical integration strategy.

A10 PA week consists of 8.5 PAs direct clinical care and 1.5 PAs for Supporting Professional Activity (SPA). The Direct Clinical Care PA’s will consist attending on the ward, Neonatal Unit and Children’s Assessment unit along with 1 in 10 night on call as well as general paediatric and asthma clinics.

Job planning will be used to reflect the needs of the department, ensuring that contracted work is appropriately remunerated. An initial job plan review will be undertaken by the Clinical Director after 3 months and annually thereafter, or if the work pattern changes. Any additional PAs contracted by the Trust will be agreed as a separate part of the job plan by mutual consent.

The on-call commitment is approximately 1:10 non-resident on call nights. The appointee will be expected to take hand over at 16:30, be resident on site till 21:30 supporting the evening team. After attending the night-time handover the appointee will be non- resident on call. He/she will be expected to support and attend the unit as required by the night team.

The post requires the appointee to be resident within 10 miles or 30 minutes travelling distance of the hospital while on call. There is an on-call availability supplement of 3% in the contract for Class A availability.

This advert closes on Sunday 2 Aug 2026