MoE at RIE
The information on this page is designed to give you an overview of the department, and to highlight training opportunities and some practical aspects about the post.
You will be assigned an educational supervisor before joining the department. You will also be asked to attend induction upon starting in the department. If you have any questions at any time, please contact your supervisor or another member of the team.
If you have any feedback please do share this with us. Your opinions are very helpful in guiding us to make changes and improvements in training. We hope you enjoy your time in the department. We are here to help in any way we can.
You will find useful links including for induction documents on the MoE page on the intranet.
Department contacts
When you start in the department, it may be helpful for you to meet the following people:
Andrew Coull: Associate Medical Director for Older People and Stroke services in NHS Lothian (andrew.coull@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk )
Wendy Morley: Clinical Director MoE RIE (wendy.morley@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk)
Sarah Marrinan: Link clinician for Registrars in MoE at RIE and site representative on geriatric specialty training committee (sarah.marrinan@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk)
Dorothy Dovey: PA to Andrew Coull and Admin and Clerical Supervisor (dorothy.dovey@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk )
Teaching and training
We hold weekly departmental teaching sessions every Thursday at 1:15pm. These are usually held in the postgraduate education centre. E-mails regarding the topic and location of these sessions are sent out weekly.
These sessions are co-ordinated by Dr Julie Dikiciyan. However, SpR input in the planning and delivery of these sessions has previously been very successful. Therefore after starting in the department we will arrange a meeting with Dr Dikiciyan to discuss how you might be able to support these departmental teaching sessions.
Departmental radiology meetings take place on Wednesday at midday.
You are encouraged to attend your Geriatric and General Medicine training days (see below procedure for study leave).
Grand round meetings are held intermittently and emails with details are sent to all staff.
During term time, we have final year medical students in the department on rotation. Registrars are often active in ward teaching and may also have the opportunity to assist with seminars.
Dr Yinka Ogundipe and Dr Sheila Coutts co-ordinate the medical student placements in RIE. If you would like to be more involved in student supervision please contact Dr Ogundipe or Dr Coutts.
ST5-7 trainees are invited to attend the weekly consultant meetings on Monday at 1pm. This gives senior registrars the opportunity to observe consultant meetings and see how service developments are planned and co-ordained within the department.
Quality Improvement activity
Wendy Morley and Richard O’Brien co-ordinate departmental QI projects relating to MoE and stroke. All members of the department are encouraged to undertake QI activity.
You should discuss your plans for QI activity early in your placement with your supervisor and Dr Morley or Dr O’Brien.
Please note that the current Geriatrics curriculum requires all registrars to undertake a QI project relating to intermediate care by ST6. You may wish to consider this if you are spending time in IOPS this year.
Further information about Quality Improvement can be found on the Lothian QI site.
Study leave arrangements
We ask that study leave forms are submitted at least 6 weeks ahead of planned leave. These forms should be returned to Dorothy Dovey.
Please ensure that your study leave is approved by the department ahead of completing a request on TURAS.
Please discuss your study leave plans with your supervisor at your first meeting. If we can help in advising on relevant study leave opportunities please do ask.
Annual leave arrangements
Your annual leave entitlement is 35 days per year inclusive of public holidays. Some of you may have additional days for length of service.
If in the department for 6 months, we would ask that you aim to take approximately half of your annual leave allowance during this time.
Annual leave requests should ideally be submitted at least 6 weeks ahead of planned leave and should be given to Dorothy Dovey.
Sick Leave
Arrangements for sick leave will be discussed in departmental induction.
MoE on-call activity
Registrars within our department do weekend on calls but not evening on-call shifts.
This rota is issued approximately every 4 months by Dorothy Dovey.
Weekend on calls are from 9am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday.
At weekends there are two MoE consultants and one stroke consultant on site until approximately 5pm.
Weekend Registrar activity comprises:
Review of patients seen on the frailty round and transferred to MoE in the last 24 hours (list usually provided by the on-call consultant)
Review of unwell patients
Support of junior doctors
New patients to the ward who have not already been seen by the frailty team will be seen by the consultant (+/- registrar input).
Weekend team meetings take place on ward 202 in the doctors’ office at 9am and 12:30pm on Saturday and Sunday. These meetings are to discuss new or unwell patients and plan activity for the morning and afternoon.
More details regarding the weekend on calls will be covered in your induction.
There is an MoE consultant on call 24 hours per day. If you have any issues or concerns please feel free to discuss these with the on call consultant.
Hospital at Night
Our Registrars predominantly do their hospital at night shifts at the RIE but may also do night shifts at St. John’s hospital or the Western General Hospital.
The rota is co-ordinated by Dorothy Dovey and is issued for approximately 6 months at a time.
The Hospital at Night service is overseen by Dr Tim Morse. However, for rota issues, discussion with Dorothy Dovey as soon as possible is advised.
More specific details about HAN across the 3 Lothian sites is available for all registrars on the deanery website.
