Dr Hayden Kirk

My role

Consultant Physiotherapist and Clinical Director

My responsibilities

As Clinical Director I am ultimately responsible for the 32 clinical teams and 550 staff that exist within the Adult Southampton service line. In reality this means working with the managers and clinicians to ensure that we provide a service to our patients that is clinical effective (and using best evidence based practice), safe (and giving assurance to Clinical Commissioning Groups, the Care Quality Commission and the Trust Board) and also cost efficient. The other half of my job is as a Consultant Physiotherapist working in Neuro Rehabilitation and, more specifically, the management of severe spasticity at the Western Community Hospital. This involves prescribing and administrating intrathecal baclofen and BTX, as well as giving physiotherapy advice for exercises, positioning and equipment. In addition to this I sit on the Wessex Clinical Senate and am responsible for co-chairing the Medicines Management Group & the Wessex Strategic Clinical Network Rehabilitation and re-ablement Steering Group.

My background

I have worked in Neuro Rehabilitation for the past 16 years in the South of England and a short spell overseas. In 2006 I was one of the early trainees on the four year Wessex Deanery funded consultant training program which provided placements across five acute and community trusts with specific training on:

• expert clinical practice

• professional Leadership and consultancy

• education training and development

• practice and service development through research & evaluation.

Why I love my job

I love working with patients and the variety of challenges inherent in working in the NHS!

More about me

Outside of work I seem to spend most of my time ferrying and watching our three children doing their respective activities, and as enjoyable as this is, I also try to occasionally find the time to go sailing and windsurfing.

Current projects/research studies

A Feasibility Study Monitoring the Respiratory Status of Participants Receiving or Scheduled to Receive Intrathecal Baclofen (ITB)

Published work

Kirk H, Kersten P, Ashburn A, Conway J, Crawford P, Keens A. (2013) ‘An  RCT exploring if the cardiac model of rehabilitation would reduce cardiovascular risk factors post Transient Ischaemic Attack and minor stroke more effectively than standard care’ Clinical Rehabilitation. Oct: 11

Hillsdon K, Kersten P, Kirk H. (2013) ‘A qualitative study exploring patients' experiences of standard care or cardiac rehabilitation post minor stroke and Transient Ischaemic Attack. Clinical Rehabilitation’ Clinical Rehabilitation Sep;27(9):845-53

Gould A, Asare H, Kirk H, et al., (2011) ‘Development of stroke care in Ghana’. International Journal of Stroke Apr: 6(2)