University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is recruiting a locum consultant neonatologist to join its neonatal team at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. The post is advertised on NHS Jobs, with a salary of £113,565 to £150,569 a year, and applications close on 23 November 2026.

The successful applicant will work in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, which sits within the Southwest Neonatal Operational Delivery Network. It is a senior clinical post for a specialist in neonatal medicine, offered as a 12-month locum contract on a full-time basis, with flexible working considered.

The role and the neonatal team

The appointee will join a current team of nine consultants and two SAS doctors. The service provides around 3,500 intensive care and high dependency care days each year, along with around 4,500 special and transitional care days. It also supports nursing staff training towards the Qualified in Speciality standard, in line with British Association of Perinatal Medicine staffing guidance.

Cover is organised around an eight-week cycle. The consultant provides consultant-delivered care across four types of attending weeks, covering the neonatal intensive care unit, neonatal transport, and transitional and perinatal care alongside medical education. On-call weeks run from Monday to Thursday, with the consultant resident until after the 9pm ward round on the neonatal unit and then non-resident.

There are also opportunities to gain further experience in neonatal transport through the multi-centre collaborative on-call roster for the Southwest Neonatal Advice and Retrieval Service, known as SoNAR. The transport consultant liaises by telephone with peninsula units each morning and with the SoNAR North Hub to coordinate transfers during working hours, Monday to Friday.

What the post holder will do

In the neonatal intensive care unit, the consultant is responsible for the day-to-day running of the unit, including morning and afternoon handover ward rounds and supervision of junior medical staff. Every admitted patient is allocated to the intensive care consultant of the week.

In transitional and perinatal care, the consultant runs the transitional care ward day to day, leads morning ward rounds, supervises junior staff, and provides fetal medicine liaison and antenatal counselling. The post also includes teaching undergraduate medical students, with a formal feedback session at the end of the week, and multi-professional education sessions for nursing and junior medical staff.

The job plan includes time to develop a special interest, which the trust says will be encouraged and welcomed. Areas that would complement the team's existing range include cardiology, respiratory medicine, developmental outcome, nutrition, transport medicine, research and medical education.

Who can apply

Applicants must hold full General Medical Council registration and be on the Specialist Register. They need a CCST or CCT in paediatrics with neonatal medicine, or an equivalent overseas qualification, or a CCST or CCT in paediatrics with the neonatal training set out in the advert, and MRCPCH or an equivalent.

The trust is looking for wide experience in neonatal medicine, including neonatal transport, advanced neonatal skills, a Newborn Life Support provider course or equivalent, valid level 3 safeguarding training, evidence of teaching medical undergraduates and other healthcare staff, and evidence of previous management experience. Applicants should also show a commitment to lifelong learning and evidence-based practice.

Pay, contract and how to apply

The post is a locum appointment for 12 months, working full time with flexible working available. The salary is £113,565 to £150,569 a year under the hospital medical and dental staff pay scheme. The advert was posted on 23 October 2026 and carries the reference number 216-G1-NEO8331574. The job is based at Derriford Hospital, Derriford, Plymouth, PL6 8DH.

Applications must be made through NHS Jobs before the closing date of 23 November 2026. The trust notes that it is sometimes necessary to close a vacancy before the closing date, so candidates are advised to apply in good time. Applicants who have not heard from the trust within four weeks of the closing date should assume they have not been shortlisted.