Consultant – Medical Retrieval

 618053 Registered JDF MP Yr 1-9 Consultant - Medical Retrieval Sep 2024 (3).PDF

Consultant – Medical Retrieval

WA Country Health Service (WACHS) is offering a unique opportunity for Consultants Medical Retrieval to Join the Command Centre in Perth, WA.

This is a permanent opportunity at various hours for Full time, Part time, and Sessional employment.

MP Year 1 – 9: $395,490 - $502,265 per annum*

Sessional Rate: $758.14 - $962.82 per session*

The above salary is as per WA Health System Medical Practitioners AMA Industrial Agreement 2024 (inclusive of base salary, 11.5% superannuation, and PD allowance). This is subject to the assessment of clinical skills and years of practice.

About the Command Centre

The WACHS Command Centre comprises centralised acute virtual care, operational services, and organisational strategies to support service delivery across WACHS. The Command Centre supports WACHS sites clinically and operationally, ensures coordinated and integrated incident response and management, which enables regional services to consistently deliver innovative, safe, and quality care to our communities.

The Command Centre brings a number of services together in a 24/7 ‘virtual’ hub. Using high-definition audio-visual and advanced information and communication technologies, the WACHS Command Centre provides a one‐stop shop for country doctors, nurses, and midwives to access a range of clinical expertise supporting acute emergency and inpatient care, including access to mental health specialists, palliative care specialists and midwives. The Acute Patient Transfer Coordination (APTC) stream facilitates coordinated safe, timely and efficient patient retrievals to, from and between country and metropolitan hospitals for country patients.

About The Role

The Medical Retrieval Consultant provides day to day leadership, management and coordination of country patients requiring retrieval. They lead a multidisciplinary team of Command Centre and partner transport agency staff to coordinate the retrieval of patients being treated in WACHS and WACHS supported sites. The role also includes assessment, triage and prioritisation including provision of high-level clinical advice for patients requiring retrieval. The APTC is integrated in the WACHS command centre with access to and collaboration with the other Command Centre clinical streams as well as collaboration with specialist regional and tertiary clinicians and retrieval agencies to facilitate timely and safe retrieval.

Here are some core responsibilities:

• As a Medical Retrieval Consultant, you will lead a team of clinicians and operational support staff from the WACHS Command Centre, located within the State Health Operations Centre (SHOC) in Perth. This is a senior clinical coordination role, pivotal to the safe and timely movement of patients across the 2.5 million square kilometres of Western Australia.
• You will act as the principal point of contact for end-to-end patient retrieval coordination—from early awareness of pre-hospital activity through to arrival at receiving facilities. You will work closely with referring and accepting clinicians, transport partners, retrieval services, and other Command Centre and SHOC streams to ensure seamless, patient-centred care.
• Your role is central to decision-making for clinical prioritisation and platform allocation, often in time-critical, resource-constrained contexts. You will be supported by an in-room multidisciplinary team, including senior nursing, paramedical, and operational staff, and have ready access to the APTC Clinical Lead On-Call and Head of Department for escalation.
• You will actively contribute to clinical governance activities within the APTC and across the broader network of retrieval and transport partners, supporting quality assurance, clinical audit, incident review, and service improvement processes. Through this work, you will help ensure that safe, effective, and culturally appropriate care is delivered to some of Australia’s most geographically isolated communities.
• The role encourages a focus on building and strengthening partnerships—cementing existing collaborations and identifying new synergistic opportunities within WACHS, WA Health, and across WA, as well as at national and international levels. This includes supporting innovation and systems integration in the retrieval and transfer space.
• Over time, the role may evolve to include broader responsibilities in pre-hospital and retrieval operations at a state level. Successful candidates will also take on a non-clinical portfolio aligned with the strategic and operational goals of the APTC, WACHS Command Centre, and SHOC.

The Successful Candidates Will: 

• Be eligible for registration with the Medical Board of Australia.
• Have Fellowship of the Australian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM), the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), the College of Intensive care Medicine (CICM) or equivalent.
• Have substantial experience in the retrieval medicine and/or the delivery of clinical coordination in an Australian environment.

Benefits Included to the Role

• Competitive salary package inclusive of 11.5% employer superannuation contributions and generous professional expenses allowance.
• Access to generous salary packaging arrangements up to $19,000 p.a.
• Generous leave entitlements – up to 4 weeks annual leave, 3-week professional development leave, 10 days sick leave, plus other forms of leave for compassionate or cultural reasons.
• Professional development opportunities.

Keen to know more about the benefits in detail? Check out the medical practitioner salaries and benefits page.

Application Instructions

Applicants must have a current, valid email address in order to apply online. This email address will be used for communication with applicants.  If you experience difficulties while applying online, please contact MedCareersWA@health.wa.gov.au.

Applicants are required to attach:

• A statement no more than 3 pages addressing Work Related Requirements (1-5) listed in the attached Job Description Form page # 5.
• A detailed CV summarising your qualification, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) registration, and relevant experience.
• The contact details of two professional referees of which one must be your current supervisor or line manager
• Registration with the Medical Board of Australia – information on your current registration status, AHPRA number and registration type/pathway.

Please note that unsolicited applications from recruitment agencies and/or search firms will not be accepted, and fees will not be paid to any such organisation unless arranged with the provider to the advertisement of the vacancy.   

For further information related to this position, please contact Dr Fred English, Head of Department, by email at fred.english@health.wa.gov.au. 

Other Conditions

WA Health engages staff in positions of trust and responsibility. WA Health policies require applicants to undertake criminal records screening and integrity checking as part of the appointment process. Referees may also be asked to comment on an applicant’s integrity and past demonstration of ethical behaviour.

Whilst this selection process will initially be used to fill the above vacancy, it may also be used to fill other "similar" vacancies throughout the health service. In addition to this, should the successful applicant decline or vacate the advertised vacancy, then the next most suitable applicant may also be selected from this process. Both of these options remain valid for a period of twelve (12) months from when the authorised delegate endorses the recruitment decision.   

This vacancy is subject to a Western Australian Working With Children (WWC) Check. For further information please refer to the WWC website at:
https://workingwithchildren.wa.gov.au

Please note this recruitment process requires completion of satisfactory Pre-Employment Health Assessment (PEHA).  Any offer of employment with WA Country Health Service (WACHS) is conditional on satisfactory PEHA to ensure you are able to perform the inherent requirements of the position. An unsatisfactory PEHA will result in the offer of employment being withdrawn.  Please see the attached WACHS PEHA Policy for further information.

LATE OR EMAIL APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.