Consultant Psychiatrist in Adult Learning Disability

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust; Tees Valley; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health trust in the UK is looking for a Consultant Psychiatrist to join their team. The appointed consultant will be responsible for psychiatric care for adults with learning disabilities. Responsibilities include leading care, managing medication, and attending outpatient clinics. Ideal candidates should have a Consultant qualification and experience in mental health settings. The role offers an opportunity to work within a supportive multidisciplinary team, delivering vital services to the community.

Qualifications

• Qualified psychiatrist with relevant experience in mental health settings.
• Capable of leading psychiatric care and managing medication.
• Experience working with patients with learning disabilities.

Responsibilities

• Act as Responsible Clinician for a small number of patients.
• Share responsibilities with an experienced Nurse Consultant.
• Lead on psychiatric care and manage medication aspects.

Skills

Leadership in psychiatric care

Collaboration with multidisciplinary teams

Experience in mental health legislation

Education

Consultant Psychiatrist qualification

Job description

Overview

This is a new post. It has been developed as a need has been identified for additional medical support for the respective services.

The North Tees Community Team provides a specialist service to adults with a learning disability who live in the Stockton and Hartlepool locality. The team has an active caseload of around 400, with between 20 and 50 allocations per month. Dr Amarasuriya is an established and highly experienced consultant for the team. He has been covering the whole team for several years and this arrangement will continue until this post is appointed to. The combined psychiatry caseload for the two localities is 102, with between 0 and 4 referrals per month.

Bankfields Court is a purpose-built specialist inpatient service for adults with a learning disability. The Trust is committed to the principles of Transforming Care and the Green Light Toolkit, so the service is reserved for patients who require highly specialist support. Patients are drawn from across the Trust footprint.The service has 11 beds, of which 6 are currently occupied. In the last year there has been 1 admission and 1 discharge, reflecting the specialist nature of the service.Medical support here is provided by Dr Adel Muir, an experienced Specialist Doctor with a specialism in physical healthcare.

The appointed consultant will have responsibility for the Stockton and North Stockton localities (population 117,979) with a projected caseload of 36. Dr Amarasuriya will retain responsibility for Hartlepool, Billingham and Norton localities (population 210,910, projected caseload 66).

The majority of patients will be jointly managed with the wider MDT. The initial timetable for the post contains two outpatient clinics per week, with additional domiciliary visits as required. Given the caseload numbers outlined above, the majority of clinic time will be spent reviewing existing cases.

At Bankfields Courtthe post holder would act as Responsible Clinician for a small number of patients (no more than half), shared with an experienced Nurse Consultant / Responsible Clinician. The post holder would lead on the psychiatric care provided for all patients, and on the medication aspects of the Mental Health Act.

We are one of the largest specialist mental health and learning disabilities trusts in the country, with an annual income of £320m and a workforce of some 6,700 staff operating from around 100 sites in Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire and York and Selby. We provide a range inpatient and community services to 2m people living in County Durham, the Tees Valley, Scarborough, Whitby, Ryedale, Harrogate, Hambleton and Richmondshire. We also provide additional specialist services to other parts of Northern England.

We deliver our services by working in partnership with eight local authorities and clinical commissioning groups, a wide range of voluntary organisations, as well as service users, their carers and the public.

Psychiatrists are essential contributors to our mental health teams. Service users expect and are justified to expect collaborative relationships with dedicated psychiatrists who work consistently as part of effective services. The Medical Directorate and Medical Development Team are striving to improve medical workforce recruitment and retention in a variety of ways and the cornerstone of these efforts is The TEWV Charter for the Medical Workforce. (Please see attached Supporting Document).

Responsibilities

• Act as Responsible Clinician for a small number of patients (no more than half)
• Share responsibility with an experienced Nurse Consultant / Responsible Clinician
• Lead on psychiatric care provided for all patients
• Manage medication aspects of the Mental Health Act
• Attend two outpatient clinics per week
• Conduct domiciliary visits as required
• Review existing cases