Director of Oncology Network — Interim, Cancer Care

The mandate

Four senior oncologists left within six weeks after a partnership dispute, causing delayed starts and diversion of complex cases. The network director resigned during the same period, leaving modality and referral decisions fragmented across sites.

The interim must be in place within fourteen days for a seven-month stabilisation. A permanent clinical-network director is being recruited concurrently, with the final month reserved for joint tumour-board and workforce handover.

The assignment is complete when ninety per cent of priority patients begin treatment inside protocol timelines, all modalities have twelve-week consultant coverage, referral leakage returns below eight per cent, and the successor accepts a funded specialty recruitment plan.

The director may reallocate sessions, commission approved visiting consultants and rebalance cases among sites inside a ₹1.2 crore contingency. New radiotherapy capital, permanent physician terms and closure of a modality require executive approval; clinical treatment decisions remain with credentialed practitioners.

The scope does not include redesign of chemotherapy procurement, construction of a planned radiotherapy bunker or marketing beyond referrer recovery. These activities should receive operational input but retain their existing owners.

Why this seat is open

A concentrated specialist exit exposed weak network-level succession and cross-site cover. Patient-access deterioration is too immediate to await a conventional recruitment cycle. The chief clinical officer wants temporary leadership to restore confidence while appointing a director who can own longer-term academic and service development.

What you will own

• Map consultant and modality capacity for the next twelve weeks and close every uncovered high-risk treatment window.
• Decide cross-site case allocation using clinical acuity, equipment availability, travel burden and protocol timing.
• Reinstate multidisciplinary tumour boards with attendance, decision and exception records for each major disease group.
• Negotiate time-limited visiting-consultant cover within approved rates and credentialing requirements.
• Recover referring clinicians through case updates, access commitments and transparent escalation routes rather than incentives.
• Build a funded permanent-workforce plan by specialty, seniority, geography and succession exposure.
• Transfer capacity tools, referrer risks and live clinician searches to the incoming network director during a structured month.

Candidate qualifications

• Medical specialist or hospital executive with eighteen-plus years in oncology delivery and multi-site service leadership.
• Detailed understanding of medical, surgical and radiation oncology dependencies, including physics and specialist nursing capacity.
• Record of stabilising clinician coverage after attrition without compromising credentialing or overloading remaining teams.
• Experience operating multidisciplinary tumour boards and monitoring treatment-start access against clinical protocols.
• Strong standing with oncology referrers, paired with disciplined avoidance of inducement-based growth practices.
• Workforce-planning capability covering visiting arrangements, permanent recruitment and single-specialist succession risk.

Non-negotiables

• Can begin onsite in Kolkata within fourteen days and travel across eastern-network sites.
• Holds no active employment negotiation with a competing cancer-care provider.
• Will not direct individual treatment decisions outside formal clinical privileges.
• Available for the entire seven-month stabilisation and successor overlap.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest Kolkata start and any clinical practice that would continue during the mandate.
2. 49 words maximum. What treatment-start delay did you reduce, from which baseline, across how many oncology sites?
3. 49 words maximum. How have you filled a twelve-week specialist coverage gap without relaxing credentialing standards?