As a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist working for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, you will be responsible for ensuring that our service users' needs are met through the delivery of high-quality care.
As a leader of the inpatient multi-disciplinary team at Irwell ward, Clock View Hospital, you will provide clinical care to older adults who require specialist inpatient care. You will work closely with a wide range of clinical and professional disciplines in order to deliver holistic care by completing assessments of new admissions to Irwell ward and managing their treatment, ensuring safe discharges back to the community.
The post holder will be responsible for completing assessments and formulating treatment plans for service users admitted to Irwell ward from the community. Irwell ward is a 17-bedded functional older adult complex care ward at Clock View Hospital. As a substantive Old Age Psychiatry Consultant on Irwell ward, you will work closely with other members of the multidisciplinary team including Social Services, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, acute hospital medical specialties, and Primary Care. You will be the Responsible Clinician for patients admitted to Irwell ward, which will involve managing patients who have been detained under the Mental Health Act. Therefore, the post holder will require a sound knowledge of Mental Health Act law, including completing relevant mental health act documentation and capacity assessments as required.
The post holder will be expected to lead the multidisciplinary team at Irwell ward in a supportive manner to foster positive working relationships. The post holder will complete ward rounds throughout the week and provide clear communication and documentation regarding assessment outcomes and management plans. They will also be expected to provide leadership and training to trainee doctors and medical students placed on Irwell ward, taking an active part in the clinical work of the team and a lead role in the development of the service.
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales, and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health, as well as specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction, and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable, and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce costs as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
The post holder will cover Irwell ward at Clock View Hospital, which is a 17-bedded acute assessment ward for service users aged 70 and over with a functional mental health problem. Exceptions would be needs-based. Irwell ward's catchment area covers Liverpool and South Sefton. There are two dementia inpatient units in the Trust: Fern ward at Leigh Moss Hospital in Liverpool and Kingsley ward at Hollins Park Hospital in Winwick, Warrington. At Clock View Hospital, there are a total of six inpatient wards: Alt ward, Dee ward, Irwell ward, Morris ward, Newton ward, and Prenton ward. Prenton ward is a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and apart from Irwell ward, the others are for adults of working age. In addition to the inpatient units, there is a Community Mental Health Team, Psychology, and urgent response mental health teams based at Clock View Hospital. Currently, there is a long-standing locum Consultant, Dr. Sumanth Kumar, who is the Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist for Irwell ward.
The post holder will be responsible for the assessment and management of all service users admitted to Irwell ward, as well as supervision of trainee doctors assigned to the ward. There will be a need to work closely with the wider multidisciplinary team caring for the service users on the ward, including the ward Manager, Nursing staff, Healthcare Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists, Social Workers, and the Community Mental Health Teams. Discharge planning for inpatients is completed during ward rounds, and there is close liaison with the relevant Community Mental Health Teams, with the service users' allocated practitioner from the CMHT being invited to attend ward rounds to agree on discharge plans and arrangements for a smooth transition from the ward to the community in terms of care. The Trust has fully electronic patient record (Rio), prescribing (EPMA), and mental health act administration systems (Thalamos) in place.
Please see job description for further details.