Radiotherapy Physics Clinical Scientific Computing Technician
Job summary
We are offering a rare opportunity for an enthusiastic Computing Clinical Technologist to join our Bioinformatics, Imaging and Oncology Systems group to provide Clinical IT Systems support within the Radiotherapy Department, at the Queen's Cancer Centre in Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
The department has long-standing evidence of research and collaboration, developments in equipment and clinical service, and high commitment to quality and governance; these include implementation of a new hardware cluster to support the expansion of Radiotherapy IT systems, in-house bespoke software, bioinformatics / data reporting, and the safe introduction and governance of cutting edge medical technology.
The department was the first Radiotherapy Physics service to gain UKAS accreditation to the emerging BS70000 MPACE quality standard, evidencing that commitment to delivery of high quality clinical service is a core value of the team, and we continue to maintain ISO9001 certification for the entire Radiotherapy service.
The department supports Radiotherapy which operates 8AM-8PM across Monday - Friday, and the post holder is expected to be flexible in order to support these hours where required, and be flexible to work out of hours where needed.
Main duties of the job
The postholder will be part of the Radiotherapy Physics Computing & Bioinformatics Section of the Radiotherapy Physics Department and be responsible for supporting systems that underpin the delivery of Radiotherapy and Oncology, by applying generalist computer science knowledge across computing & bioinformatics (data).
The postholder will also assist in the provision of timely and effective support of medical physics and clinical engineering infrastructure and highly regulated clinical systems to ensure our end users can provide a safe quality service to our patients, under the day-to-day supervision of registered clinical technologists.
Occasionally, the postholder will also provide bioinformatics and clinical software development support under the scientific supervision of the Principal Clinical Scientist, Lead for Radiotherapy Computing & Bioinformatics.
Please note that, in line with UKVI regulations, this vacancy does not meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker Visa route. As a result, we are unable to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship for this position.
We remain committed to fair and equal recruitment practices and encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates who have the right to work in the UK.
About us
The Humber Health Partnership is one of the largest acute and community Partnership arrangements in the NHS, seeing well over one million patients every year and managing a budget of over £1.3 billion.
Made up of two Trusts - Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLAG) and Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH) - our Partnership has significant ambitions and is committed to delivering world-class hospital and community services for the 1.65 million people we serve.
Together we employ nearly 20,000 staff. Our five main hospital sites are Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Scunthorpe General Hospital and Goole and District Hospital, for NLAG and Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital for HUTH.
As Teaching Hospitals working with the Hull York Medical School, we both lead and contribute to research in many areas - biomedical research, primary care, palliative medicine, cardiovascular and respiratory medicine, vascular surgery, cancer surgery and oncology.
We believe that by developing a diverse, inclusive, innovative, skilled and caring workforce, we can deliver excellent care to our patients and a great future for our employees, our Partnership and our community.
We reserve the right to close the advert early in the event of high levels of interest. Therefore early applications are encouraged.
For further details with regard to this vacancy opportunity, please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The post holder will be involved in:
Providing support for the oncology information management system within radiotherapy and other computer-based systems.
Contributing to the development of administration procedures and policies for all relevant systems.
Recording and troubleshooting clinical systems and support computing activities which impacts across clinical and non-clinical areas, independently but escalating where necessary.
Participating in the planning, development, review, upgrade and introduction of a range of high cost clinical, non-clinical systems and hardware.
Performing routine quality assurance / daily checking of clinical IT systems in line with departmental procedures.
Respond to urgent requests to troubleshoot clinical IT systems in the event of unplanned downtime.
Planning, organise and manage own workload within the scope of assigned projects.
Take a lead role in the routine support to the service desk.
To develop and maintain a thorough understanding of the processes, data and patient flows within the Oncology Service and to provide training, support and advice during the introduction of complex computer technology to support those processes and to maintain specialist knowledge within the fields of radiotherapy scientific
Advise others in the understanding and analysis of collected data
Work closely with Clinical Technologists in Computing with delegated IT tasks, and work closely with Healthcare Science Practitioners in Bioinformatics with delegated data retrieval tasks, to support the work across the computing & bioinformatics section.
Work closely with clinical scientists with delegated tasks where appropriate under direct supervision.
Physical moving and handling of equipment, such as installing equipment into server racks, installing new equipment and occasionally moving equipment from different locations.
Patient Care / Clinical Services
The postholder provides technical services which helps to ensure the safe and effective treatment of patients.
This includes:
Troubleshooting and implementing fixes to equipment which is involved in patient care.
Support the training of clinical and non-clinical staff on internal systems
Performing routine quality assurance (QA) / testing and maintenance highly complex and high financial cost IT systems and hardware used for patient care.
Contributing to projects that involve a diverse range of healthcare professionals such as clinical scientists, doctors, nurses and radiographers which impacts patient care.
To be able to work to strict deadlines, especially involving the availability of clinical equipment.
Knowledge, Training and Experience
The postholder will deliver their responsibilities by having the following:
Relevant Sciences degree such as Computer Science
Experience providing support to service users
Awareness of IT Service Management and Project Management
Experiencing using Windows Server IT infrastructure
Awareness of Active Directory, DNS, DHCP and other protocols.
Experience of programming languages such as C#
Leadership / Management Responsibilities and Development
The postholder has no leadership or line management responsibilities and works within a clearly defined quality management system under the supervision of registered Clinical Technologists and under the broader supervision of the Principal Clinical Scientist Lead for Radiotherapy Computing & Bioinformatics. They will be required to demonstrate their activities to more junior staff.
Communications
The postholder will be comfortable discussing technical information with other staff:
Develop and foster open collaborative communications with colleagues both internally and externally to the trust
Liaise with external suppliers and contractors, often negotiating and persuading deliverables / outcomes.
Act in a professional and courteous manner to staff, patients and members of the public
Train clinical staff on use of IT systems and locally developed software and keep training logs
Communicate complex technical issues effectively with other technical and non-technical staff.
Use software to record faults and information.
Service Development and Improvement
The postholder will support service developments by:
Suggesting improvements to the quality management system drawing from IT Service Management knowledge
Supporting the implementation of best practices
Supporting the development of the help desk and support function
Helping to organise updates and maintenance to systems and IT equipment with internal users.
Research, Audit and Innovation
The postholder supports:
Projects that require analysis and evaluation of new technologies
Ad-hoc requests for input into innovation projects
Participate in internal audits as an auditee
Supporting the evaluation of new clinical systems before purchasing
Freedom to Act
Work under a quality management system within a framework of procedures and work instructions.
Resolve incidents using own experience and initiative. Registered clinical technologists and/or clinical scientist available for consultation if required.
Manage own incident workload whilst ensuring that incidents are resolved within departmental agreed timeframes
Prioritise workload within an agreed priority hierarchy.
Person Specification
Education/Qualifications
- A BSc (Hons) degree in Computer Science or closely related subject with significant computing or IT
- Professional qualifications in IT
- Membership of a professional body
Application completion
- ALL sections of application form FULLY completed
Knowledge, training and experience
- Experience of providing IT support to end users
- Knowledge of core computer science and IT concepts.
- Knowledge of C# programming language
- Knowledge and experience of SQL queries
- Experience of working in the NHS
- Experience administering Windows Server infrastructure
- Knowledge and experience of Python
Communication and interpersonal skills
- Good communication - verbal/written
- Works well with in a team
- Demonstrates understanding of confidentiality
- Evidence showing professional development
- Ability to prioritise workload
- Facilitate learning of others
- Ability to build positive working relationships with colleagues across the trust
Special attributes and other
- Shows motivation in developing new skills.
- Demonstrate empathy and diplomacy.
- Flexible and reliable.
Other requirements
- Good time keeper
- Occasional out of hours or weekend working
- Understanding how clinical computing impacts patient care
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Address
Castle Hill Hospital
Castle Road
Cottingham
HU16 5JQ
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.hey.nhs.uk/