- Thames Hospital, New Zealand
- Permanent, Full time - Rostered
About the Role
Come and join us in Thames, gateway to the Coromandel peninsula. We have an opportunity for a motivated physician with a broad range of skills to join the medical service in Thames Hospital. Our team of five consultants provides inpatient and outpatient general medical care to a population of around 50,000 permanent residents. The physicians lead a team of Senior House Officers and Registrars from the Rural Hospital Medicine and General and Acute Care Medicine training programs.
There is a 1:4 to 1:5 on call roster. Our roster is based around a rotating three week cycle of ward roles. Weeks “off-the-ward” are built into this roster. This ensures all physicians have protected non-clinical time and opportunities to take annual leave and CME leave. This structure also allows flexibility of FTE, with options to work less than 1.0 FTE by working fewer “on-the-ward” weeks across the year.
Key responsibilities of the role:
- Direct inpatient care and acute assessment of Thames General Medicine patients, including providing General Medicine Specialist support for the Thames Emergency Department
- Supporting primary and ambulatory care including providing phone advice to General Practitioners, electronic triaging of referrals from primary care, providing outpatient assessment (General Medicine Clinic and Exercise Treadmill tests), and communicating with General Practitioners (Clinic Letters, Discharge Summaries, and other communications).
- Providing support, leadership and education to Thames General Medicine Resident Medical Officers.
- Collaborating with Thames and Waikato Hospital SMOs and patient flow managers to ensure safe, timely and efficient transfer of patients between hospitals. In a modern health system, patient flow is indivisible from patient care.
- Ensuring timely acknowledgment and actioning of investigation results and engaging in non-clinical activities commensurate with the SMO role including maintaining Professional Development, attending departmental meetings, undertaking service improvement activities, and supporting the professional development of our inter-disciplinary team.
About the Team/Service
Thames is a vibrant, modernised 50 bed secondary hospital with an emergency department, inpatient medicine, day case surgery, infusion unit, rehabilitation services, and low-acuity mental health beds. It is a rural hospital, with subspecialty services provided at Waikato Hospital—around 90 minutes away by road transport. There are 24 hour laboratory and radiology services including CT imaging. We are an accredited training unit for 5th and 6th year medical students from Auckland University, for PGY2 House Officers, for in Rural Hospital Medicine registrars, and for a General and Acute Care Medicine advanced training registrar. We have an active quality improvement and internal CME program, as well as an RMO teaching program. Telehealth is an expanding area of care provided in Thames, with current use on the inpatient ward, for outpatient clinics and in the emergency department for stroke thrombolysis.
Thames is a coastal town on the shores of the Hauraki Gulf and is known as the gateway to the Coromandel. The peninsula is a popular recreation destination, with surf beaches and native bush providing plenty of opportunity for down time. The town is centrally located in northern Waikato and is around 90 minutes’ drive to Auckland, Hamilton or Tauranga.
Join us - Come and join us at Thames Hospital
or visit our website https://www.waikatodhb.health.nz/jobs/vacancies/join-thames/ and find out more about our team
About you
Applications are invited from Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians or Fellows of the Division of Rural Hospital Medicine, or equivalent. You must be eligible for vocational registration with the Medical Council of New Zealand.
Working at Health New Zealand
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce that is diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand and service our community. We welcome applications from our diverse Māori, Pacific, disabled, and rainbow communities.
How to Apply
All applications must be submitted through our online careers’ portal. If you have any questions about the role, please contact Kaitlin Basson on Kaitlin.Basson@tewhatuora.govt.nz