With over 1000 referrals and 650 transfers a year, Retrieve is the dedicated Adult Critical Care Transfer Service for South West England. They can offer 6-12 month placements for Doctors in Training (DIT) at either their Bristol or Launceston bases. This is part of Stage 3 training in Anaesthesia (Specialist Interest Area, or SIA), or Stage 2 training in Intensive Care Medicine (Special Skills Year, or SSY).
About Retrieve
With over 30 Duty Consultants (DCs) and 20 Transfer Practitioners (TPs), Retrieve has grown rapidly since in inception with the aim of ensuring that every critically ill or injured patient that requires transfer receives the best possible care.
Hosted by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and commissioned by NHS England South West, Retrieve operates from bases covering the Peninsula (Launceston in Cornwall) and Severn (Bristol) regions. This includes the following hospitals:
- Bristol Royal Infirmary
- Cheltenham General Hospital
- Derriford Hospital
- Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
- Great Western Hospital
- Musgrove Park Hospital
- North Devon District Hospital
- Royal Cornwall Hospital
- Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital
- Royal United Hospital
- Southmead Hospital
- Torbay Hospital
- Yeovil District Hospital
- Weston General Hospital
Clinical opportunities
A DIT placed with Retrieve will get first-hand exposure of resuscitating, stabilising and managing the time-critical transfer of hyper-acute patients, including trauma, stroke and neurosurgical emergencies. Facilitating less-urgent escalation of care to regional tertiary centres, through to repatriation of more stable patients closer to home, distances are variable and dependent on base location; transfers can be anything from a short journey across the same city, to the length and breadth of the country.
Working in a small, close-knit team, and after a short period working directly alongside one of our consultants, Retrieve aims to enable DITs to independently manage transfers under distant supervision.
Educational opportunities
The practice of Transfer Medicine is varied and you will be trained and gain experience in unfamiliar yet transferable skills, including:
- Equipment
- Call handling
- Communication including managing difficult situations in other hospitals
- Resuscitation
- Packaging
- Simulation
You will be encouraged to participate and lead day-to-day educational activities, engage in the training of TPs and Attached Doctors (doctors in training who get place for 1-3 days at each stage for transfer exposure) and to help run on-base simulation sessions. You will also be invited to our annual cross-regional educational day out.
Retrieve holds a monthly virtual Clinical Governance/Continuing Medical Education morning, which you are expected to attend and participate in.
Project work
As a minimum, all DITs should participate in one of Retrieve’s many ongoing projects. Even more desirably, they are encouraged to identify and complete a project of their own design and to close the QI cycle. There will be the opportunity to present your work, either as a poster or orally, at regional and national meetings.
Further study
All doctors in training are encouraged to work towards the Diploma in Retrieval and Transfer Medicine, run by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Contact details
Please contact retrieve.transfer@nhs.net for more information on how to apply.