King’s College Hospital recruiting into their cardiac department

This article was supplied by King’s College Hospital

Ever wanted a career in a London tertiary university teaching hospital? Now might be your chance…

At King’s College Hospital we are looking to recruit in the cardiac department. King’s is one of the UK’s largest teaching hospitals, and is one of four partners in the Academic Health Science Centre, King’s Health Partners, that collaborates on world-research, driving the vision of becoming the best medical research campus in Europe. We have nearly 1000 inpatient beds, with high volumes of interesting and complex cases. King’s is constancy evolving upgrading and treating patient’s better- recently we have opened a brand new state-of-the-art intensive care facility, a hybrid lab with the Cath Lab and a new helipad.

Echocardiography at King’s

The echocardiography department is one of the biggest in the UK, we have a team of 15 sonographers, 2 imaging consultants, and 4 imaging fellows, all over seen by the world renowned Professor Mark Monaghan. Prof Monaghan is a leading figure in 3D echocardiography, stress, contrast and TOE. The department prides itself on its use of 3D assessment and strain, if you work with us it won’t be something you do occasionally, but routinely, which brings competency, accuracy at King’s it is part of our everyday work. The Echo department runs weekly contrast and bubble study lists, as well as physiology/clinical scientist-led exercise and supine bicycle stress testing for ischemia and valvular assessment. Physiologists/clinical scientists are involved during all TOE and Dobutamine Stress procedures, with a drive to support further autonomy and clinical scientist/physiologist-led clinics in the future.

We have weekly echocardiography multi-disciplinary meetings, led by Prof Monaghan, where complex, interesting and good teaching cases are discussed, where clinical scientists, physiologists and imaging fellows are welcome to present cases. There are educational sessions held where a whole range of clinical specialities present and give insight into their speciality. As well as a journal club for the critique and discussion on the latest research and articles published. The Echo department has BSE and EACVI laboratory accreditation, and some staff are BSE transthoracic examiners.

Cath Labs at King’s

In the Cardiac Catheter Labs at King’s a wide range of procedures are performed from Diagnostic Angiography through to Complex VT ablation and Structural Heart procedures all with state of the art equipment.

As Physiologists we are respected as highly qualified members of a truly multidisciplinary team, and play an integral role in the running the Cath Labs as the ‘go-to-people’ for all the technical equipment. The Interventional Consultants in our trust are enthusiastic about using Physiology to guide PCI treatment, meaning we frequently use FFR, RFR, IVUS and OCT systems for our 450 PAMI and 1600 Angioplasty procedures each year. Currently King’s are the highest volume users of OCT in Europe. We are also privileged to have a very busy research team in our Cath Labs, so we can be actively involved in multiple projects allowing us to be at the forefront of assessing new equipment and techniques in Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Rhythm Management.

Our Electrophysiology team perform all manner of atrial and ventricular based procedures in our three dedicated EP lab days each week. We use a wide variety of equipment for ablation Bard Recording system for our simple ablation cases as well as Abbott’s Precision, Biosense Webster’s Carto system and Boston Scientific Rhythmia platform. We are also becoming increasingly proficient at performing ablation procedures using zero fluoroscopy. We get exposure to a wide variety of patients with various arrhythmias and are constantly learning new techniques. Our physiologists have presented at international conferences and our Consultants are always making the team to aim higher, helping personal professional development.

Cardiac Rhythm Management at King’s

The Cardiac Rhythm Management services at King’s College Hospital provide an exciting environment to learn about Arrhythmia and Device Management.  Working as part of the multidisciplinary team, physiologists / healthcare scientists have an opportunity to have important influence in the care pathway for arrhythmia patients.

King’s College Hospital has always tried to be at the forefront of evolving technology within Arrhythmia Management as well as participating in ongoing national research studies.  Physiologists / Healthcare Scientists have the opportunity to gain experience in complex device implantation including CRT-D, His bundle pacing and Subcutaneous ICDs. We perform approximately 9000 Pacemaker and ICD follow ups a year for a large catchment area of patients.  There is also a progressively expanding remote monitoring service which allows for safe follow up as well as early identification of clinically significant issues.  The Device team also provide support for Pacemaker / ICD patients undergoing surgery or MRI. There is currently ongoing work to develop advanced practice within the team through Physiologist / Healthcare Scientist led Implantable Loop Recorder Implantation.

We are regularly involved in multidisciplinary meetings to discuss patient care with Consultant Electrophysiologists, Arrhythmia Nurses, ICC Nurses and HF Nurses. Physiologist / Healthcare Scientist led ICD Patient Support Groups have been established, providing a forum for device education through presentations and talks.

The teams also took the initiative to organise and deliver a Physiologist led CRT Study Day which was attended by Physiologists from centres across London.  The annual study has been well received and provides members of the team to pass on their clinical knowledge to others. As a department we also provide a range of non-invasive cardiac diagnostics, such as ECG, Ambulatory monitoring, Exercise Tolerance Tests, Cardiopulmonary Exercise Tests, Tilts Tests and Active Stands. We are extremely fortunate to allow all staff to attend national and international conference and courses throughout the year and are privileged to be asked to present at these courses. All staff are encouraged and supported to develop and progress their careers. Senior members of the team are always keen to impart their knowledge and teach.

The wonderful thing about King’s is that there is no typical day – each day has new challenges to face and learn from within a supportive and friendly team environment.

So whether you are looking to develop your existing skills, learn new techniques, or be part of a busy, friendly tertiary centre with lots of opportunities- consider applying to one of our current vacancies;

• Band 7 Echocardiographer
• Band 6 Trainee Echocardiographer
• Band 7 Electrophysiogist
• Band 7 CRM
• Band 6 Physiologist
• Cardiographer

For more information, please contact Nishat Jahagirdar; nishat.jahagirdar@nhs.net

Or Eleanor McPhail; eleanor.mcphail@nhs.net