Consultant in Liaison Psychiatry

Job overview

The consultant psychiatrist will provide clinical and managerial leadership in the Psychiatry Liaison Service (PLS). The successful applicant will join two substantive consultants to provide consultant leadership to the team.

The workload in PLS is variable. The consultant would be expected to attend handovers and support the clinical lead to allocate the workload according to clinical and service need.

The team receive 300+ referrals per month. The consultant psychiatrist sees complex patients as required by the multidisciplinary team either in the ED or on wards and provides clinical advice and supervision to the MDT members and junior doctors.

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will support the liaison service in multidisciplinary assessment, treatment and management of patients with mental disorders as envisaged in NICE Guidelines. The post holder will liaise with the other relevant organizations eg Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust ensuring a seamless service. They will provide consultant leadership to the psychiatric liaison service, including junior doctors, and students. They will ensure that patients receive a comprehensive assessment and provide a formulation and management plan for patients. They will support the team to ensure that the national KPI targets for liaison psychiatry are met. They will support the ongoing relationship with the acute Trust and provide education and training to acute Trust colleagues. Opportunities will be available for quality improvement and service development work in addition to research.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• 1.          Provide consultant leadership to the psychiatry liaison team:
• Team Manager
• Deputy Team Manager
• Fully staffed Nursing team
• Full time staff grade doctor
• Junior Doctors on rotation
• Clinical Psychologist
• Students from nursing, medical and paramedic backgrounds 2.          Provide comprehensive assessment, diagnosis and management of issues relating to mental and physical health for acutely ill adult inpatients. 3.          Undertake all work in the context of the recovery approach which is emphasised across the Trust, placing the service user at the centre of planning and decision making. 4.          Attend the Handover in the Liaison service to maintain good communication with other clinicians. 5.          The liaison service has a KPI targets and a requirement to meet them. The post holder will work to ensure the targets are met. 6.          Provide support and training to other health care professionals and support service users through the care pathway as required whilst working with other teams in the hospital and the community setting. 7.          Lead on the delivery of high quality care in all settings and be mindful of quality targets set by the Trust and those set nationally. 8.          Have liaison with the linked inpatient adult mental health services and community mental health teams when indicated. 9.          Develop an expertise and knowledge of local services for people with mental health problems. 10.      Provide appropriate clinical supervision and training for junior medical staff and lead the multidisciplinary team. 11.      Take part in mandatory Trust audit programmes and also develop local relevant audit cycles to improve the function of the community rehabilitation team. 12.      Actively participate in the Trust’s clinical and strategic development.