Locum Consultant - Resident - Neonatal Unit | Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Applications are invited for a full-time (10 PA) locum Consultant in Neonatal Medicine at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. Since April 2020 we have been part of the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with 2 sites, one in Bedford which has a Special Care Unit and the Luton and Dunstable site which has a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The post is based entirely at the Luton and Dunstable site and is available immediately for period of 6 months initially. This is to cover a period of leave. The successful applicant will join an enthusiastic, innovative and friendly team of Neonatal consultants delivering family centred, safe and high quality clinical services leading to excellent outcomes in a busy tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital is the Lead unit for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and one of 3 tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the East of England Neonatal Operational Delivery Network accepting in-utero and ex-utero transfers from a wide geographical area. We have close links with the rest of the Network including the other two NICU’s. We currently have 19 ITU/HDU cots and a total of 37 cots. Our new state of the art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit opened in November 2025 providing modern, purpose built and family friendly facilities for the provision of intensive, high dependency and special care alongside a transitional care unit.

We have a team of 13.75 WTE Consultants providing resident and non-resident out of hours cover. You will join the consultant team rotating through a rolling rota of attending weeks covering the ICU or Delivery Suite/Postnatal wards and performing regular Neonatal out-patient clinics. The candidate will join colleagues in delivering an average of 22 hours a day of consultant presence on the NICU by contributing to on-site out of hours cover through a mixture of long day shifts and resident nights. The post does not include any non-resident on-call duties (this may be subject to change). When resident on site in the evening, or overnight this is in addition to a minimum of two ST4+ doctor (tier 2 cover) and one or two ST1-3 doctor (tier 1 cover), with additional non-resident on-call support for periods of high activity. Through these innovative working patterns the Neonatal Unit has achieved a consistently high number of hours per day of consultant presence to support doctors in training and deliver high quality, safe neonatal care.

We are a friendly, dynamic and supportive multidisciplinary team and are looking for an appointee who can work with us to maintain this ethos whilst helping us to expand and further improve the care of the Newborn in Beds and Herts. We contribute to multicentre clinical trials and are keen to continue to expand our portfolio of clinical trials and to neonatal research therefore applicants with previous research experience are encouraged to apply.

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.

Key tasks

· Maintenance of the highest clinical standards in the management of all neonatal patients born or transferred into the hospital.

· To share, with colleagues in the Neonatal Department the management of neonatal patients requiring admission to Neonatal Intensive Care or Transitional Care alongside oversight of postnatal babies requiring medical management or senior review.

· To share in the provision of outpatient follow-up of any neonatal patient who requires ongoing management in the community up until the age of 2 years or until care is formally transferred to another specialty such as paediatrics.

· To share with consultant colleagues in providing the resident Neonatal consultant out-of-hours rota.

· Teaching and training of intermediate grade and, junior medical staff, nursing staff and medical students.

· 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).

1.

3.

Duties of the Post

LocumConsultant in Neonatal Medicine

This post is part of a dynamic and enthusiastic team of 14 Neonatal Consultants who deliver a comprehensive emergency and long stay service on the Unit and follow up for neonatal unit graduates for the first 2 years of life.

The Neonatal Consultant team work attending weeks in the Intensive Care Unit, the Special Care Nursery and Labour ward/Post-natal wards on a rotating basis with 3 consultants being on weekday daytime clinical duty at any one time. The post-holder will undertake 1 attending week in every 6 week rota cycle which will rotate between ITU1, delivery suite/postnatal ward and Special Care/ITU2.He or she will liaise with the Community Neonatal Team to ensure the safe monitoring of babies discharged early from the neonatal unit. The appointee will follow the Trusts No avoidable Infection Strategy and take a full and active role in Safeguarding.Consultants with special interests to complement those of current Consultant staff are encouraged to apply.Candidates will preferably have Neonatal NationalGrid Neonatology Training (see person specification).

3.1 Job Plan for 10 Programmed Activities (PAs)

The job plan is a prospective agreement that sets out a consultant’s duties, responsibilities and objectives for the coming year. It will covers all aspects of a consultant’s professional practice including clinical work, teaching, research, education and managerial responsibilities. It provides a clear schedule of commitments, both internal and external. In addition, it provides personal objectives, including details of links to wider service objectives and details of the support required by the consultant to fulfil the job plan and objectives.

A10 PA week divides into approximately 8.5 PAs for clinical activity and a minimum 1.5 PAs for Supporting Professional Activity (SPA) in agreement with the Clinical and Divisional Directors.The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges estimates that 1.5 SPAs per week is the minimum time required for a consultant to meet the needs for CPD for revalidation purposes. CPD activities encompass clinical, personal, professional and academic activities. If required and agreed additional SPA time above 1.5 should be linked to organisational objectives, such as, research, clinical management or medical education roles. The Job plan allocation for Clinical Activity and SPA will be reviewed three months after appointment. A diary exercise will provide evidence of activities. Thereafter review will be annual.

In addition to the fixed clinical sessions necessary to provide continuous cover in the clinical area, flexible sessions that include time for teaching, administration, management and clinical governance will be discussed and agreed.

A job plan will be agreed by the Clinical Director for Neonatal Medicine in the first instance and approved by the Job Planning Advisory Reference Group (JPARG) on behalf of the Chief Executive. This plan will be reviewed annually. The annual review will be used to check that the record of fixed and flexible sessions is accurate and compliant with the EWTD; covers acute commitments and is compatible with the agreed template for the speciality and that any problems arising can be resolved. This also provides an opportunity for constructive debate about the individual’s personal development plan including CPD and any evolving special interests which the appointee may wish to pursue.

Schedule 10 fee Paying Services (as per Terms and Conditions – Consultants (England) 2003) work may be undertaken within the Terms and Conditions of Service and may be discussed and revised at time of review

The provisional Job Plan takes into account activity over 42 weeks per year. The Trust runs an annualised job plan for all consultants, with job planning assisted by the online MyL2P tool.

This is a 6 week rolling rota recurring 8.66 times per year.

This advert closes on Thursday 5 Nov 2026