Position: Staff Specialist/Senior Specialist in Cardiology, Electrophysiology
Canberra Health Services
- Unique role with exciting opportunities
- One of the world’s most liveable cities
- An attractive remuneration package
- Salary Packaging with many options that provide full fringe benefits tax concessions
Position Description:
The Department of Cardiology is a well-established service with 14 consultant medical staff positions, four Accredited Cardiology Advanced Trainees, and two Unaccredited Cardiology Advanced Trainees, in addition to Basic Physician Trainees and other Junior Medial Officers. They work as part of a large multidisciplinary team including specialist nursing staff, cardiac physiologists, cardiac sonographers, administrative staff, and the cardiac rehabilitation team. Patients accessing the services include adults of all ages, acuity, frailty, and disability, who present for diagnosis and treatment of a range of acute and chronic cardiac conditions. Our Cardiology Team strives to deliver an exceptional and caring service for our patients, our community and each other.
The coronary care unit is a 19-bed unit which has over 2000 admissions annually. The cardiology outpatient service provides up to 4,500 episodes of care annually with increasing demand each year. There is a close working relationship with our cardiothoracic surgical unit.
The Interventional Cardiology Service includes two dedicated cardiac catheter laboratories which undertake over 800 coronary interventional procedures and over 1,600 angiography procedures annually. It provides a 24/7 service for primary PCI for acute ST elevation myocardial infarction for the region. A structural heart disease program is being developed. The service also provides simple and complex cardiac device implantation service and follow up. Clinical cardiac electrophysiology services were commenced in April 2019 with complex ablation procedures.
The echocardiography service performs over 4,000 procedures per year. Regular transoesophageal echocardiography service and stress echocardiography is provided, with additional emergency cover. Cardiac CT program commenced in 2017 in collaboration with the Department of Radiology. Cardiac MRI is part of the proposed development plan for the department.
There is a dedicated heart failure clinic coordinated by a Heart Function Advanced Practice Nurse. These clinics provide ready access to phone advice, education on self-management, avoid recurrent presentations and to assist with reducing length of hospitalisation by early bridging to outpatient care or closer to home care program. The Department also provides a nurse led cardiac rehabilitation service supported by cardiologists, with strong engagement from patients and their families.
Construction is underway for a state-of-the-art Heart Care Centre, incorporating Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery services in the Acute Cardiac Care Unit (ACCU) and Interventional Cardiology Laboratory (ICL) as part of the Canberra Hospital Expansion Project (scheduled for completion in 2024).
Duties
Under limited direction of the Cardiology Unit Director you:
- Provide clinical Electrophysiology (EP) services to clients and participate in the clinics and on-call rosters for the Cardiology service. This may include:
- Management of patients referred to the cardiology outpatient clinics, including timely triaging, consultation, diagnosis, reporting and treatment of cardiac conditions (e.g. medical clinics including arrhythmia clinic, Holter monitoring, Exercise Stress Testing, and implantable device monitoring).
- Participation in on-call rosters.
- EP procedures- including implantation, monitoring and management of basic and complex cardiac implantable electrical devices, EP studies and catheter ablations. Promoting same day procedures when feasible and safe. Providing support for device clinics, and work towards development of remote monitoring clinics, EP nurse-led clinics etc and other innovations as necessary for efficient service delivery.
- Contribute to regional EP service development and delivery. Participation in education for trainees, nurses, and physiologists. Consultative service for referring hospitals as required.
- Contributing to direct cardiology inpatient care, patient consultation requests from other units and timely ward rounds to ensure patient management is safe, optimal and expedited.
- Assist the Cardiology Unit Directors to ensure appropriate clinical governance mechanisms are in place for the Department.
- Actively engage in quality and safety activities, service redesign, and model of care development for the Department and the Division.
- Contribute to regular teaching and training of Cardiology Advanced Trainees and the multidisciplinary clinical team and promote clinical research within the Cardiology Department.
- Undertake other duties appropriate to this level of classification which contribute to the operation of the organisation.
Benefits
Medical Practitioners employed at CHS enjoy excellent conditions. Our Enterprise Agreement is available at https://www.health.act.gov.au/careers/come-and-work-us/enterprise-agreements
Why Canberra?
With more restaurants and cafés per capita than anywhere else in Australia, there is always somewhere new to tempt your tastebuds.
If the outdoors is more your scene, there’s mountains, snow, and surf all right at your doorstep. Canberra is so much more than politics, so if you’re considering a change in scenery, the ACT has a lot to offer.
Visit Canberra has more information about Canberra and Canberra Live has information about living and working in Canberra.
How to apply or want to know more?
All applications must be submitted through the e-recruitment system and must include a copy of a current CV, and a response to the selection criteria in the duty statement under “To Apply”.
Closing date for applications: 25 October 2023