Locum Consultant in Liaison Psychiatry

Job overview

The Trust is seeking a Consultant psychiatrist in the Hospital Mental Health Team for working age adults at St James University Hospital. This vacancy is 10 PA trust locum post in Liaison Psychiatry based at the Becklin Centre from 4th August 2025 until 3rd February 2026, with the potential for a 3 to 6 month extension. You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team providing input to the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust at St James University Hospital.

Main duties of the job

To work with the Hospital Mental Health Team to ensure that patients referred from general hospital wards to the liaison psychiatry team are assessed and managed appropriately and to provide medical expertise and medical leadership within a multi-disciplinary team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This is a consultant liaison psychiatrist post. Clinically, the postholder will work with the Hospital Mental Health Team (HMHT) and provide medical leadership and medical expertise to the MDT and ensure that patients referred from general hospital wards are assessed and managed appropriately. This is an opportunity to work in one of the most comprehensive Liaison Psychiatry services in the country alongside several other Liaison Psychiatrists.

The HMHT receives between 3 to 4 referrals each day from the general hospital wards. A team meeting is held each morning so that the referrals can be managed and allocated effectively. The consultants normally lead in allocating new assessments and follow up reviews between themselves and the rest of the team. Referrals are prioritised at the point of referral and those that are deemed to be urgent, have to be discussed with one of the liaison consultants.   The post holder will be expected to provide direct assessments for complex cases as well as supervision to other team members as required, this will typically equate to the postholder undertaking 2 to 3 new patient assessments and 4 to 6 follow up/review assessments per week. The postholder would not be expected to carry a caseload.