Consultant in Geriatrics & Acute Frailty Medicine

Overview

Consultant in Geriatrics & Acute Frailty Medicine - Shape the Future of Frailty Care! Join our pioneering Care of the Elderly team at West Suffolk Hospital, where innovation meets compassionate care. This is an opportunity to lead transformative change in frailty care both regionally and nationally. Interviews to be held on Friday 24th April 2026.

Inpatient Geriatrics Ward:
Oversee care on our 32-bed ward and develop the ward to have outstanding care for our frail populations. Acute Frailty Service:
Conduct specialist assessments in ED, AAU, and SDEC (Monday-Friday, 9 AM-7 PM). Community Impact:
Collaborate with the Virtual Ward and community teams. Weekend Rounds:
Participate in a 1 in 7 rotation (Saturday-Sunday, 8:30 AM-12:30 PM).

• To provide high-quality, holistic medical care to frail older people in both hospital and community settings
• To develop services in a subspecialty area within geriatric medicine.
• To provide advice and support to local GPs and community matrons.
• To work with appropriate community services to enable frail older people to receive treatment safely in their own home.
• To support the active case management of frail older as part of the acute Frailty assessment unit.
• Teaching and training of junior staff, medical students from Cambridge university, clinical nurse specialists based in geriatric medicine.
• To participate actively in both Departmental and Trust Clinical Governance and Audit.
• To have responsibility for ensuring active participation in continuing professional development (CPD), appraisal and revalidation.

We are a team of geriatricians looking to expand our services further across the hospital and into the community to enable more older people to benefit from specialist geriatric assessment. We provide acute in-patient services on an elderly care ward, ortho-geriatric services, medical and surgical liaison services, front door assessment and out-patient clinics at the West Suffolk Hospital site. In addition, we oversee care of intermediate care beds in the community hospital  priorities for the next 2 years include the establishment of an acute frailty assessment unit to take direct admissions from the community, establishing falls and frailty clinics in peripheral sites, developing models of closer working with community matrons and advanced clinical practitioners in frailty to enable patients to receive comprehensive geriatric assessment closer to home, enhancement of our virtual ward pathway and using new technology to provide remote assessment of patients in care homes.

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of frailty care beyond traditional inpatient settings. Our Geriatricians work across hospital and community settings—or a combination of both—playing a vital role in admission avoidance strategies for frail and elderly patients.

#BeKnown at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. By us. By our patients. By our community. We are a busy, friendly, rural NHS Trust providing high-quality care and compassion to more than a quarter of a million people across west Suffolk. We care for, treat and support people in hospital, at home and in various community settings. The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds provides acute and secondary care services (emergency department, maternity and neonatal services, day surgery unit, eye treatment centre, Macmillan unit and children's ward).

It has 500+ beds and is a partner teaching hospital of the University of Cambridge. Adult and paediatric community services, provided in collaboration with West Suffolk Alliance partners, include a range of nursing, therapy, specialist, and ongoing temporary care and rehabilitation, some at our Newmarket Community Hospital. We do our utmost to achieve outstanding clinical outcomes for patients and our values of fairness, inclusivity, respect, safety and teamwork guide how we work and behave as a team.

With nearly 5,000 staff, from all over the world, we strive to make our organisation a great place to work. Whatever your role or ambition, we want to help you be the best you can be. We promote a diverse and inclusive community where everyone's voice counts and you can #BeKnown for whoever you are. Join us. What will you #BeKnown for?