Specialty Doctor in Geriatric Medicine

Lansdowne ward, together with Elizabeth and Rhydlafer wards, is based at St Davids Hospital which provides ongoing community hospital based in-patient care for frail older patients. Most of these patients will have experienced an acute admission at UHW or UHL hospitals but no longer require acute hospital in-patient care at transfer to St Davids hospital. The patient case mix largely consists of frail older people who have ongoing chronic disease management needs as well as recovery, rehabilitation, reconditioning and complex discharge planning needs. Working in partnership with the acute hospital sites and Rehabilitation liaison nurses and Consultant Geriatricians at both sites, patients are identified at the earliest point of their acute journey who no longer need acute hospital care. The aim of the wards at St Davids hospital is to provide a holistic, multidisciplinary, rehabilitation driven and ongoing care service to frail older patients, in order to maximise their functional independence, psychological wellbeing and discharge from hospital in the overall context of 'Chronic Disease Management'. In addition, the wards care for a cohort of severely frail patients whose needs often encompass an End of Life Care approach but who may have needs that are too complex, intense, unstable or unpredictable to be met at home or in a care home setting.

Working in partnership with the acute hospital sites and Rehabilitation liaison nurses and Consultant Geriatricians at both sites, patients are identified at the earliest point of their acute journey who no longer need acute hospital care. The aim of the wards at St Davids hospital is to provide a holistic, multidisciplinary, rehabilitation driven and ongoing care service to frail older patients, in order to maximise their functional independence, psychological wellbeing and discharge from hospital in the overall context of 'Chronic Disease Management'. In addition, the wards care for a cohort of severely frail patients whose needs often encompass an End of Life Care approach but who may have needs that are too complex, intense, unstable or unpredictable to be met at home or in a care home setting.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board was established in October 2009 and is one of the largest NHS organisations in the UK. We have a responsibility for the promotion of health and well-being of around 475,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, the provision of local primary care services, running of health centres, community health teams, hospitals – providing treatment and care when health and well-being isn’t the best it could be.

We are increasingly focusing the planning and delivery of our care based on neighbourhoods and localities to help ensure people receive care as close to home as possible where it is safe and effective to do so. We also provide specialist services for people across South Wales and in some cases the whole of Wales.

The Health Board also serves a wider population of 2.5 million people across South and Mid Wales and manages a number of services of a regional and sub-regional nature namely cardiology, cardiac surgery, PICU, neurology, neurosurgery, medical genetics, bone marrow transplantation, renal transplant and toxicology. On-site services include 24/7 PCI, stroke thrombolysis, ophthalmology, maxillo-facial, trauma, general medicine, general surgery, urology and paediatrics. From September 2020, University Hospital of Wales was designated as the first Major Trauma Centre to launch in Wales.

The Elderly Care Assessment Service is an Intermediate Care service which plays a significant role in supporting patients to optimise their recovery and maintain their independence in the community to avoid an acute hospital admission. It provides rapid access community based Multidisciplinary Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment and ongoing Management for an ambulatory cohort of patients referred from both the Community and Acute Emergency Department settings.

The service is open Monday - Friday and has access to basic diagnostic services. The role of the Specialty Doctor is to complete initial assessment of all new patients and provide ongoing intervention as deemed necessary.

In addition to the ECAS service, specialty services encompassing Dementia and Continence Clinics are based at St Davids Hospital. The successful candidate will be encouraged to develop a sub-specialty interest in at least one of these. There is flexibility in the job plan for the successful candidate to undertake additional acute sessions with the frailty service in emergency unit or a regular slot within the acute medical on call rota at a suitable grade.