Consultant Psychiatrist - Liaison Service - Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Job overview

We are recruiting for a part-time Consultant Psychiatrist to join our Psychiatric Liaison Service (PLS) at Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe Hospitals.

You'll have an active clinical leadership role working alongside an work alongside an existing  consultant psychiatrist and an experienced multi-disciplinary team. The service manages psychiatric emergencies in the Emergency Department at Stoke Mandeville Hospital (SMH) and facilitates early discharge from the designated wards in SMH and Wycombe General Hospital (WGH) by assisting with discharge planning.

PLS is an important component within our Urgent Care Pathway, commissioned to provide services for people who have both mental and physical health problems in the acute hospital setting.  Working alongside the counties’ two Crisis Teams and third sector services, the team plays a role in supporting people in crisis and help to reduce emergency acute admissions, attendances at the Emergency Department and extended lengths of stay.

We offer rewarding career development with protected SPA time as part of your job plan, encouraging you to take leadership courses to enhance your skills. We also offer a relocation allowance of up to £8,000 for external applicants (subject to eligibility criteria).

Could this be the next step in your career? Apply now to join one of the UK's leading mental health Trusts and be part of a successful service delivering urgent care and improving patient outcomes.

Main duties of the job

• Provide clinical leadership and medical input to the team.
• Take responsibility for those patients seen by himself/herself, together with those patients seen by medical staff directly supervised by them. This will include mental health referrals from SMH and WGH of patients over the age of years. Although the appointed consultant is expected to take clinical lead for adults of working age patients, each member of the team is expected to work across specialty boundaries.
• With other consultants in the team, have responsibility for the clinical governance of the team as clinical leads for the team.
• Provide clinical supervision of other medical staff and nurses attached to the team and contribute to the multidisciplinary working of the service.
• Day-time responsibility for Mental Health Act assessments and related MHA administration of patients under the care of PLS, including Responsible Clinician duties.

Applicants must be fully registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) and on the Specialist Register or be within six months attaining their Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) or an equivalent approved indicator of training. Please refer to the attached job description for a comprehensive list of duties.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Local context

The Psychiatric Liaison Service (PLS) was established in April 2014 with a priority to manage psychiatric emergencies in the Emergency Department at Stoke Mandeville Hospital (SMH) and to facilitate early discharge from the designated wards in SMH and Wycombe General Hospital (WGH) by assisting with discharge planning. Both SMH and WGH are part of Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust. The main Emergency Department for Mid- and South Buckinghamshire is in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury.

PLS is an important component within the Urgent Care Pathway, commissioned to provide services for people who have both mental and physical health problems in the acute hospital setting. They, alongside the counties’ two Crisis Teams and third sector services, play a role in supporting people in crisis and help to reduce emergency acute admissions, attendances at the Emergency Department and extended lengths of stay which can be distressing and debilitating for patients.

SMH is located on the edge of the market town of Aylesbury. Perhaps best known for its internationally acclaimed spinal injuries unit, SMH provides a wide range of services to Buckinghamshire and beyond including 24-hour Emergency Department, maternity, cancer care and outpatient services. WGH is situated in the centre of the historic town of High Wycombe and offers a wide range of surgical services and specialist medical care for stroke and heart conditions. The hospital also offers specialist cancer and urological services.

Oxford Health has close links with Oxford University which include a term-time weekly academic meeting, regular research meetings, research opportunities, journal clubs and audit meetings. The Trust hosts or collaborates with a wide range of research infrastructure. In September 2016, a partnership between Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Oxford was awarded £12.8M to support a new NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC; Director Prof John Geddes) focused on mental health and dementia. The Trust welcomes applications from appropriately qualified clinicians who would like to work with the BRC, CLAHRC or NIHR CRN (Clinical Research Network) as part of their agreed job plan. Trust has recently set up a Centre for Patient Safety and Quality. There will be opportunities for medical input into this Centre.