Physiotherapist, Clinical Specialist, General Hospital

Mallow General Hospital:

Mallow General Hospital along with Bantry General Hospital (BGH) make up the Cork University Hospital (CUH) Group. Mallow General Hospital is located 35 kms north of Cork City serving the population of Cork and the surrounding border counties of Kerry, Limerick and Waterford.

Mallow General Hospital is a Model 2 Hospital with 37 inpatient beds. The hospital provides inpatient, outpatient and day patient services. The services provided in the hospital include – general medicine, cardiology, respiratory, gerontology and gastro-enterology.

34 additional beds opened in the last quarter of 2023 increasing capacity back to 71 beds.

In patient medical activity is supported by a Medical Assessment Unit and a High Dependency Unit.

Mallow General Hospital also provides elective day surgery, endoscopy, injuries unit, outpatient department, laboratory, physiotherapy, and radiology including CT scanning and ultrasound services.

The academic partner is University College Cork and Mallow General Hospital facilitates medical students, nursing students and allied health professional students.

Purpose of the Post:

The Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist will provide the advanced clinical knowledge and expertise to design and implement a high quality service. He / She will be responsible forthe effective and efficient delivery of an evidenced based, patient focused, quality infused Physiotherapy. The Clinical Specialists will work as part of a multidisciplinary team to manage a caseload of adults with obesity in Mallow General Hospital.

This intervention is a high intensity multidisciplinary intervention delivered to individuals with severe and complex obesity who have been referred from the community, having been through the dietician delivered multicomponent intervention. It involves one-to-one sessions with dietetics, occupational therapy and psychology monthly over 12 months. Telehealth is currently being developed and used in the existing level 3 service. A funded level 3 service will deal with 400 patients on the waiting list annually.

In addition, the Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist will:

• Serve as a leader in service improvement and development.
• Develop and implement clinical evidence based practice, research and audit for the Physiotherapy Obesity service.

Provide expert guidance/consultation to other Physiotherapists, students and health care professionals via education, supervision and training to ensure they have the required skills & knowledge to deliver evidenced based, safe and effective practice.