Speciality Doctor in KCW Memory Service

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

We are seeking an experienced and enthusiastic Specialty Doctor to work in the Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster Memory Service, CNWL. This is initially a 12 month fixed-term contract with a strong possibility of becoming a permanent position.

The KCW Memory Service is based at our South Westminster Community Mental Health HUB, at 190 Vauxhall Bridge Road. The service is comprised of a service manager, consultant psychiatrist, Higher Trainee (ST) and an SAS psychiatrist (this post), dementia specialist nurses, occupational therapist, Band 7 and 8a psychologists, Admiral Nurses, Dementia Advisors and administrative staff.

The KCW Memory Service works principally with primary care but has strong links to the Older Adults Mental Health Services, liaison services in acute hospital trusts, Social Services and voluntary services. The service provides assessment, diagnosis and management of people with cognitive difficulties as well as the sign-posting of patients and their carers to appropriate services.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will be highly motivated, energetic and passionate about carrying out high quality assessments and delivering high quality care to patients with cognitive impairment.

The position requires full GMC registration and we are looking for a candidate with at least three years' psychiatric experience (or old age medicine experience). Older adult psychiatric experience is welcomed but not essential because training opportunities will be readily available. The post-holder will also contribute to supporting the team and will cover when the consultant and/or ST are on leave. Applicants should have experience of team working, possess sound organisation skills and be able to work on their own initiative. Effective communication and empathic skills are essential, and a commitment to outstanding patient care.

Key responsibilities:

1. Carry out initial assessments and reviews of patients referred to the service with cognitive difficulties.
2. Initiate treatment in many of these cases.
3. Sign-post patients to other services depending on their needs.
4. Support members of the multidisciplinary team.
5. Provide high quality care and performance.
6. Support training needs of psychiatry trainees and medical students and the MDT team.

About us

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) is one of the largest trusts in the UK, caring for people with a wide range of physical and mental health needs. We have approximately 7,000 staff that provide healthcare to a third of London's population and across wider geographical areas, including Milton Keynes, Kent, Surrey and Hampshire.

As a Foundation Trust we involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run and our future development.

Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference.

Job responsibilities

1. Undertake medical assessment, diagnosis, treatment and care of patients presenting to the KCW Memory Service.
2. Provide support, advice, liaison and information to all who might be concerned in the care of the patient. This includes education and advice to family members/carers of patients as well as professional carers.
3. Refer to appropriate services in response to patients' needs.
4. Work alongside members of the KCW Memory Service multidisciplinary team. This will involve shared assessments (both office and community based), providing advice, support and guidance on psychiatric issues to team members, attendance at meetings concerning patients as well as team management meetings.
5. Attend, and occasionally chair, weekly multi-disciplinary team meetings either on site or online in order to feed-back clinical information and discuss ongoing management of patients.
6. Provide medical consultation, advice and expert knowledge to all team members.
7. Have a good understanding of, and work in close liaison with, colleagues in older adult CMHTs, day services, statutory and voluntary sector agencies, primary care and all other partner agencies in KCW to offer input, education and support regarding the patients' medical care and to give information and/or support to telephone callers regarding mental health issues, where appropriate.
8. The post holder will participate in and lead on audit and research activity in response to service needs. This will include taking a lead role in developing relationships with providers of drug research programmes in the field of dementia.
9. The post-holder will participate in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in addition to providing internal teaching sessions for clinical staff and external teaching sessions to primary care services, voluntary sector services and local authority social services.
10. Maintain confidential up-to-date patient and other records and provide letters, reports and information on clinical and other activity as required by the service.
11. You will very rarely be required within normal working hours in urgent assessments (which might involve Mental Health Act assessments) if you are Section 12 approved.
12. Interact with patients and all colleagues in a courteous and supportive manner.

Person Specification

Education, Qualifications and Training

• Primary Medical Degree
• Full GMC Registration with Licence to Practise
• Section 12 MHA Approved
• MRCP Geriatric Medicine
• An additional post graduate qualification of relevance to (own specialty)

Experience, Skills and Abilities

• Completed at least 3 years full time post graduate training (or its equivalent on a part time or flexible basis) at least one of which will be in a specialty training programme in a relevant specialty or as a fixed term trainee or have equivalent experience and competencies.
• Older adult psychiatry experience.
• Geriatric medicine experience.

Personal Skills & Qualities

• Excellent communication and empathic skills.
• Demonstrable leadership skills.
• Experience of team working.
• Sound organisational skills.
• Ability to work on own initiative.

Other

• Sickness (or attendance) record that is acceptable to the Trust: to be checked at interview. Declared medically fit by the Occupational Health Department to perform the duties of the post.

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

Clinical Director & Consultant psychiatrist

£59,175 to £95,400 a year plus London weighting of £2162 per annum pro rata