Robotic Senior Clinical Fellow in Advanced Head and Neck Surgery

Please note that this vacancy is for a position commencing in October 2027.

This post is recognised by the Royal College of Surgeons of England National Surgical Fellowship Scheme and it is suitable for post-CCST SpR’s who are interested in obtaining further specialist experience before taking up a Consultant post. The post holder will be have the opportunity to enroll in the IFHNOS Global On-Line Fellowship (GOLF) program including 7 written examinations and final oral examination. Upon successful completion, candidates may use the title of “IFHNS” after their name. Recognition that the fellowship program meets the highest international standards of training.

This post is a Robotic fellowship programme, with flexibility to accommodate rotations or external placements in support of training quality and service requirements

This post provides advanced head and neck surgery training and would suit a trainee at the end of their training scheme wanting further exposure to the full remit of head and neck surgical oncological techniques as well as advanced salivary gland and thyroid surgery, prior to becoming a consultant head and neck surgeon.

GSTT Head and Neck Cancer Centre as the tertiary head and neck cancer centre for the South East London Cancer Network treats over 430 new head and neck cancers a year, with surgical treatments varying from trans oral laser resection to complex cases requiring free tissue transfer performed on a single site. Multi-disciplinary team working with thoracic, lateral skull base and plastic surgeons facilitates a supra-regional revision thyroid, lateral skull base and salivary gland service. The main emphasis of the post is in ablative surgery however ample opportunity exists for exposure to head and neck reconstructive surgery.

The candidate will be expected to carry out research and audit projects and will be encouraged to present them in national and international meetings as well as mentoring and teaching of junior staff.

Working for our organisation

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.

We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.

We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and – as part of King’s Health Partners – we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have one of the National Institute for Health Research’s biomedical research centres, established with King’s College London in 2007, as well as dedicated clinical research facilities.

We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs.

The core components of this Fellowship include: Transoral Robotic Surgery, weekly Head and Neck Oncology MDT meetings, regular H&N 2 week-wait, audit and clinical research. There will be an opportunity to gain extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment head and neck cancer with particular emphasis on exposure to Transoral Robotic Surgery. There will be additional exposure to salivary gland surgery, thyroid surgery, airway surgery, ablative head and neck surgery, revision and salvage surgery. There is an excellent opportunity to carry-out clinical-translational research in Robotic Head and Neck surgery with an active existing PhD program and established links with the Department of Surgical and Intervention Engineering within the School of Biomedical Engineering and Image Sciences at King’s College London.

The Fellowship includes all aspects of Advanced Head and Neck Surgery with a particular emphasis on Transoral Robotic Surgery using robotic systems that are presently in regular clinical use within the Trust. These include the daVinci X and XI systems (Intuitive Surgical) and The Versius system (CMR surgical). The post holder would have the opportunity to develop and participate in a novel TORS teaching program and would be supported with a view to developing sufficient skills and proficiency to achieve TORS Console certification. The successful candidate will be working as part of a combined Head and Neck surgical oncology unit primarily under the supervision of Mr Asit Arora (Head and Neck Robotic Surgery Lead) in addition to Mr Jean-Pierre Jeannon and Mr Aleix Rovira. Mr Arora is a proctor in Head and Robotic Surgery for Intuitive Surgical, sits on the TORS Medical Advisory Board for CMR Surgical and runs a PhD program in Surgical technology at KCL.

The post-holder will under the relevant consultant be responsible for the provision of specialist Otorhinolaryngology, Oral and Maxillofacial and Head and Neck services to the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital Trust. This will include:

a) Diagnosis and treatment in the specialist clinics he attends and to ensure high standard of patient care

b) Diagnosis and treatment of patients occupying accommodation made available under Sections 58, 65 and 66 of the National Health Service Act 1977 in so far as such patients have not made private arrangements for such treatment under section 65(2) of the Act.

c) Ensure adequate data collection through the new CIS.

d) Conduct clinical research and audit.

e) Conduct undergraduate and post-graduate teaching and training.

f) Contribute to service improvement and development

The current consultant staff in Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery are:

Mr J P Jeannon Head and Neck Surgery

Mr Richard Oakley Head and Neck Surgery

Mr Asit Arora Head and Neck Surgery – Clinical Lead

The current Consultant staff in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery are

Mr Mus Alibhai Head and Neck and Reconstructive surgery

Mr Rafal Niziol Head and Neck and Reconstructive surgery

The Fellowship Director and Lead Educational supervisor for the post is Mr Ricard Simo

Time-Table of an Average Week

A Timetable of an Average Week can be shared with shortlisted candidates.

There are six SpRs, two CT doctors on surgical rotation and one Trust Doctor. In

addition there are two FY1 Doctors. The number and distribution of these posts is kept

under review and there will be change with the implementation of the European Working Time Directive.

In addition, there are two allied healthcare diagnosticians, two nurse practitioners, who run the preadmission clinic and one paediatric nurse specialist.

The postholder will, together with colleagues, be responsible for the provision of services to the Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust to include:

(a) Diagnosis and treatment of patients of the trust in such hospitals, health centres or clinics or other premises as required.

(b) Continuing clinical responsibility for the patients in your charge, allowing for all proper delegation to, and training of, your staff.

The postholder will take responsibility for the training and direction of junior staff allocated to him/her under aegis of the training plan that that postholder has agreed with their supervising consultant.

The post-holder will be expected to contribute as appropriate in the teaching of

undergraduate and postgraduate students. It will be also expected to teach and support

the MRCS course and all the other courses held in the Unit and Department.

All medical and dental staff are expected to take part in clinical governance activity, including clinical audit, clinical guideline and protocol development and clinical risk management. They will be expected to produce evidence of their contribution in these areas and their audit of their own clinical work as part of their appraisal.

There is a contractual obligation on employers to monitor working hours through robust local monitoring arrangements supported by national guidance, and on individual doctors to co-operate with those monitoring arrangements.

European Working Time Directive (EWTD)

All posts and working patterns are under constant review in line with EWTD guidelines

The post-holder will be required to undertake appraisal as per GMC and Trust Guidance and an Educational Contract will be established at the beginning of the post. Personal Development will be encouraged in compliance with GMC and Royal of Colleges guidelines. As the post is recognized as a Post-CCT Educational Post by the Royal College of Surgeons, the post-holder will be required to register with ISCP to monitor their progress.

The Trust is divided into clinical divisions each led by a Divisional Director responsible for clinical service on a Trust-wide basis. The groupings have been designed with careful attention to related speciality areas, clinical, academic and business configuration. The Divisional Director is a member of the Trust Management Executive

and responsible for the Clinical Directorate at Executive level. The individual specialties

are led by Clinical Leads who report to the Service Delivery Unit Heads who in turn report to the Divisional Director and the Divisional General Manager. The current Clinical Lead for Otolaryngology is Mr Pavol Surda and for Head and Neck is Mr Asit Arora.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.

Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.

As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.

Flexible working

We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.

Due to recent changes in the UK immigration rules which affect Skilled Worker Visas, Global Business Mobility, Higher Skill Level and Increased Salary Thresholds, please ensure that you are able to meet the requirements to live and work in the UK before applying. Further information about eligibility is available on the UK Government website.

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