Consultant in Neurological Rehabilitation

Position Overview

The role consists of 10 Programmed Activities, annualised as 8.5 Direct Clinical Care (DCC) and 1.5 Supporting Clinical Activities (SPA). The post is an appointment by Hillingdon Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with a licence to attend at Imperial College NHS Trust. The post holder must hold full MRCP and a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in Rehabilitation Medicine. Trainees in Rehabilitation Medicine who are approximately six months from CCT are welcome to apply. The appointee will work with two consultants in Rehabilitation Medicine and a team of neurologists across Hillingdon Hospital and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to provide continuous care for patients moving from tertiary to secondary and community services. This position offers an excellent opportunity to deliver high‑quality neurological rehabilitation to spinal cord injury patients in a busy district general hospital setting and in the tertiary environment at Imperial. Six of the DCC activities are based at the Hillingdon site and four at Imperial. The post holder will provide consultant input to the London Spinal Cord Injury Network and the Major Trauma Network in North West London, improve care for spinal cord injury patients in the sector, and develop integrated care with community teams and outreach visits in partnership with the North West London ICB.

Key Role Deliverables

• Provide high‑quality, patient‑oriented care for patients of all ages diagnosed with spinal cord injury, whether traumatic or non‑traumatic, including those with additional needs such as mental health or polytrauma.
• Provide diagnosis and medical management for the spinally injured patient, including management of spasticity and pain.
• Evaluate potential benefit from rehabilitation and prognosis for recovery.
• Define rehabilitation needs and direct patients to appropriate rehabilitation services.
• Coordinate care and collaborate with other medical, nursing and therapy teams.
• Communicate with families to provide information, support them in distress and manage expectations.
• Work closely with regional spinal cord injury centres, supporting referrals and contributing to collaborative clinical discussion.
• Support the pan‑London spinal cord injury network educators, ensuring a cohesive education programme is promoted and offered to all staff involved in spinal cord injury care, with a particular interest in rehabilitation needs and interventions.
• Be an active member of the multidisciplinary spinal cord injury network/team.
• Provide expert advice to other network members regarding patient assessment, care planning, clinical outcomes and evaluation.
• Support improvement of individualized outcomes for patients, their families and carers.
• Facilitate and coordinate improved standards of care through collaborative working and expert advice.
• Integrate effective monitoring of standards and outcomes in collaboration with others across the network to ensure and demonstrate better outcomes for service users and carers.
• Actively involve service users and carers in feedback groups, audits and coproduction opportunities to improve service provision, patient/carer experience and understanding.
• Contribute to the Spinal Cord Injury education and training programme to evaluate its impact and coordinate the delivery.
• Work with NHS England and the North West London ICB to develop Hillingdon Specialist Rehabilitation Service as a provider of specialist spinal rehabilitation.
• Provide strategic clinical insight and leadership, working with specialist spinal therapy and nursing colleagues to facilitate and support the development and adoption of agreed spinal cord injury patient pathways in London and ensure the delivery of agreed clinical standards.

Qualifications

• Full GMC Registration with a licence to practice MRCP or equivalent.
• Inclusion on the GMC Specialist Register for Neurorehabilitation, Neurology or General Internal Medicine, or within six months of the expected date of CCT in both Geriatrics and General Internal Medicine.
• Recent clinical experience in Neurorehabilitation/Neurology.
• Higher degree such as MD or PhD.
• Clinical and educational supervisor training courses.
• Previous experience of participation in research.