Consultant in General Adult Urgent Care Psychiatry

Consultant in General Adult Urgent Care Psychiatry Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

This is a full time newly-developed and exciting substantive Consultant Psychiatrist opportunity to work within the Urgent and Emergency Care Service in CNWL, for the Mental Health Crisis Assessment Service (MHCAS) and Single Point of Access; and play a key part in developing and improving our crisis pathways and urgent care access for patients.

The post is based at St Charles Hospital Mental Health Centre in North Kensington and the Gordon Hospital in Westminster, in London, and is within the Jameson division in the Trust. The post-holder will also provide Consultant leadership across the CNWL Urgent Care service.

We offer a range of development opportunities for newly qualified and established consultants looking for new opportunities. We welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds and those within 6 months of CCT.

Candidates are welcome to contact Dr Jasna Munijiza, K&C Clinical Director, for a discussion.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will have consultant and RC responsibility for service users under the care of the Mental Health Crisis Assessment Service, and will provide clinical support and development for the Single Point of Access and the Central Flow Hub teams. Admin support is provided through an Urgent Care team administrator and office space is provided at the St Charles hospital site.

They will be accountable to the K&C Clinical Director Dr Jasna Munijiza and responsible for the key tasks as below:

1. Provide senior medical responsibility for patients.
2. Provide medical support and advice in relation to urgent referrals and queries.
3. Work closely with the service manager to identify and address complex clinical queries and liaise with GPs to facilitate urgent prescribing of medication.
4. Work closely with the Service Managers and Deputy Heads to provide training and education to the staff.
5. Act as a point of contact for Urgent Care services promoting and increasing awareness of the service to key stakeholders.
6. Provide support for members of the multidisciplinary teams and to develop the MDT in delivering care informed by evidence.
7. Work as part of the Urgent Care SMT and attend relevant meetings as necessary.
8. Ensure training needs of any psychiatry trainees and medical students are met as well as supporting training of other junior clinical staff.

About us

The MHCAS is a 24/7, 365 day a year service situated at the St Charles' Hospital site in Central London, aiming to provide a therapeutic supplement and alternative to attending an emergency department (ED) for those experiencing a Mental Health crisis. The MHCAS offers a range of therapeutic interventions in an appropriate space and provides people with mental health needs the opportunity to access a more prolonged and informed assessment of needs and/or risks.

The SPA is an all age multi-disciplinary service, that ensures that referrers, patients and carers receive an efficient and timely response when accessing secondary mental health services, or when needing urgent advice and support. The service is in-line with the NHS Long-Term Plan, which recommends that mental health services implement a single point of access and that this is all-age.

Both the MHCAS and the SPA are key services in CNWL's crisis and acute pathway as an alternative to inpatient admission along with Home Treatment teams, Psychiatric Liaison Teams and our third Sector partners. Both services sit within the Urgent and Emergency Care Service (UEC), which also encompasses the Trust's bed management team, the Integrated Discharge Team and Stepdown Houses.

Job responsibilities

Core clinical responsibilities

1. Provide senior clinical advice and support to both the MHCAS through review of patients, attendance at MDT meetings and other regular clinical team meetings including professionals meetings and team clinical reflection.
2. Provide expert clinical advice to the SPA team, and input into telephone assessments and attend clinical handovers as appropriate.
3. Work closely with the MHCAS, CFH and SPA managers in developing robust and clinically safe systems.
4. Liaise with colleagues in wider services to promote a seamless service.
5. Support with triage and assessment of patients as necessary and provide clinical supervision of assessments carried out by other team members as required.
6. Ensure community connectivity for patients where relevant as part of discharge planning.
7. Build and maintain good relationships with other teams and consultants along the pathway.
8. Review complex needs patients to ensure appropriate care plans are put in place.
9. Mental Health Act related work as indicated.
10. Ensure that patients' physical health needs are addressed.
11. Ensure high quality documentation in the team including clear documentation related to mental capacity assessments and physical health assessments, and also discharge summaries.
12. Ensure safe handover across interfaces when patients are discharged.
13. Develop working relationships with relevant local voluntary sector services who can support and promote recovery where possible preventing readmissions.
14. Follow the cross-cover protocol that has been agreed with another team or colleague which will ensure appropriate consultant cover is in place during absences.

Core leadership responsibilities

1. Carry out a leadership role in the quality agenda: identify areas for improvement and demonstrate active engagement with QI.
2. Lead the development and understanding of how service processes and pathways would need to be adapted to meet evolving patient needs.
3. Work closely with the SPA, CFH & MHCAS Service Managers, Urgent Care Service Director and Borough Medical Director to meet Trust and Divisional objectives.
4. Support recruitment and ensure optimal retention of team members.
5. Line management and clinical supervision of any junior trainee/specialty doctor in the team.
6. Teaching of medical students if placed in the team.
7. Engage in service development, attend the care quality meetings and local expert advisory group meetings.

Person Specification Educational and professional qualifications

• Primary Medical Degree
• Full GMC Registration
• Inclusion on the Specialist Register (or CCT expected within 6 months of interview date)
• Section 12 MHA Approved
• AC approval
• Higher degree (MSc, LLM, MD or PhD)
• Management and leadership training
• Management qualification and/or extensive knowledge and expertise acquired through training and experience up to doctoral level.

General knowledge/ experience & core skills

• Experience of assessment and treatment of mental disorders in an acute psychiatric setting
• Experience of working in multidisciplinary teams
• Proficient in risk assessment and management
• Experience of use of the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act in an inpatient psychiatric setting
• Evidence of completed clinical audit projects
• Evidence of undergraduate and postgraduate trainee teaching
• Experience of service development/business planning
• Completed research projects
• Publications in peer-reviewed journals
• High level knowledge of planned developments at a national level to improve efficiency and deliver quality services
• Experience of teaching non-medical staff/carers

Other attributes

• Good communication and interpersonal skills
• Sound organisational skills
• Evidence of evidence-based medicine training, teaching and implementation
• Training and experience of relevant therapies
• Demonstration of ability to innovative practice and service improvement

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

£105,504 to £139,882 a year plus £2,162 London weighting allowance (per annum pro rata)