410-CG494E Job Title Medical Engineer - Anaesthetics
Area of Work Anaesthetics Employer Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital NHS Trust Department Medical Engineering Location Liverpool Salary £17,316 - £20,818 Working pattern 37.5 hours per week Job Type Permanent Staff Group Additional Professional Scientific & Technical Pay Scheme Agenda for change Pay Band 4 Closing Date 26/08/2008
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital provides medical and surgical adult Cardiothoracic services to the people of Merseyside, North Wales, Isle of Man, parts of Lancashire and Cheshire. This catchment area has a population of 2.8 million people.

The Trust has recently celebrated national and regional success in major national surveys. The hospital was praised as ‘excellent’ by its patients, rated ‘very highly’ for its cleanliness and rated as one of the two best performing hospitals in the country in terms of providing overall care to patients. This is the 2nd consecutive year that the Trust has achieved this top rating. (Healthcare Commission 2008)

*** PREVIOUS APPLICANTS NEED NOT APPLY ***

Post: Medical Engineer – Anaesthesia

Grade: Band 4

Salary: £17,316 - £20,818 p.a.

Working as a medical engineer you will be part of a highly skilled team that provides a comprehensive service for the management of medical equipment in all its aspects including service, repair, planned maintenance and clinical / technical support.

This exciting opportunity will give you the means to gain experience working on a wide range of highly specialist equipment in what is one of the largest heart and chest hospitals in the UK, working from a purpose built modern facility across clinical departments within both the trust and its customer’s premises.

You should be an experienced engineer with a minimum 2 years quantifiable experience of working unsupervised on electrical / electronic / mechanical equipment. Have HNC/ONC qualifications in a suitable engineering subject with the desire to continue your development up to and including degree level by a variety of methods including in house training, manufacturers courses and higher education in order to achieve registration as a clinical technologist.

For an informal visit/chat about this post please contact Karl Mundy (Manager Medical Engineering – Anaesthetics) on 0151 600 1569.

Applications must be submitted on-line via http://www.lhch.nhs.uk/jobs
or via www.jobs.nhs.uk

Please quote reference number: CG492E

Closing Date: 26th August 2008

Karl, I'm sure your going to get a few comments on this vacancy advertising it as band 4!

Out of interest how come it was banded so low? I can understand if your taking on a trainee but you ask for 2 years experience on what sounds like none medical equipment but then in the person spec ask for experience on relevant equipment.

Even on-call get's you at least a band 5 if not 6 and God knows what "medical gas systems (MPGS) as a competent person" would get you in other trusts. I understand in some Trusts when people mention Anaesthetics it's like the holy grail of ebme but others mention it as oh that's just plumbing. Is your Trust one of those that doesn’t work on the basis of specialism’s but instead seniority where the only difference is more responsibility?

I do share the same feeling that it should be on a higer grade band as the job requires to be ......."you will be part of a highly skilled team that provides a comprehensive service for the management of medical equipment in all its aspects including service, repair, planned maintenance and clinical / technical support." and ......."an experienced engineer with a minimum 2 years quantifiable experience of working unsupervised on electrical / electronic / mechanical equipment."

Roger your location reports as Singapore so I'm not sure if you know much about Agenda for Change but the evalution procedure is detailed here.

One major point is item 12 in the handbook, Freedom to act; band 4 relates to Level 2 which states "Someone is generally available for reference and work may be checked on a sample/random basis" where as band 5 relates to Level 3 which states "Work is managed, rather than supervised, and results/outcomes are assessed at agreed intervals" that's the major reason I wondered if this was actually a trainee position instead?

Thanks for enlighting me on NHS policies and processes. Our policies here are generally based on academic qualification, experiences and relevant equipment training. An engineer with a basic degree generally command an annual salary of between £45k to £67k.

Chris

Im a medical engineer who does on call and am on Band 4! Where does it say that on-call is automatically band 5? I'd very much love to see that!

Regards

Alan M

It's basically Freedom to act, if your on call where is your supervisor? Do you go out in pairs? One to do the work the other just to watch!

Also if the VRCT ever becomes mandatory there's always annex T which states professionals should start on band 5. It's just before annex U the offical procedure for trainee's instead of just handing out band 4's!

We do two men on. A week of first followed by a week of second on. Higher grades are mixed with lower grades so that there is always back up.

Annex T looks interesting... However (and I really really really dont want to start this arguement again) but realistically how long will we be waiting for the VRCT, HPC etc to become mandatory?

How far is Shrewsbury from Liverpool? A million miles in terms of grades (see latest job advert). I hope they don't nick your applicants.

Alan, I take it that two men don't go out to the same job and thus technically you don't have any backup.

Interestingly if Annex U was actually implemented, taking into account a two year training period, for the Liverpool post the starting pay on band 5 would be £14573 rising to £15614 in the next year hense a saving to the trust. Question is would they get anybody for that and is there any chance of the new post holder getting a band 5 in two years time!