Consultant Psychiatrist - Adult In-patients (Austen Ward) in Olney

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a dedicated and experienced Consultant Psychiatrist to join our inpatient team on Austen Ward, located at Hollins Park Hospital in Warrington. Austen Ward is a 17-bed, all-male general adult inpatient unit, supported by a team of up to three junior doctors, depending on training rotations. The successful candidate will take on clinical supervision responsibilities for these trainees, contributing to their development and the delivery of high-quality care.

This post has become available following the retirement of the previous Consultant, who served the Trust with distinction for over 20 years. At Mersey Care, we are passionate about mental health, recovery, and wellbeing. We are committed to delivering the highest standards of care and placing quality and compassion at the heart of everything we do. We are proud to support and empower our senior clinicians to lead innovation and drive change. This role offers exciting opportunities to shape clinical practice, contribute to service development, and play a key role in enhancing patient outcomes. If you are a forward-thinking psychiatrist looking to make a meaningful impact within a supportive and progressive Trust, we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job:

• Consultant psychiatrist responsibility for all patients on Austen ward.
• Carry out comprehensive psychiatric assessments and provide treatment for inpatients.
• Support staff to manage psychiatric emergencies.
• Conduct patient reviews and lead multidisciplinary ward reviews, CPA reviews and multi-professional meetings.
• To be the Responsible Clinician (RC) for the purposes of the Mental Health Act 1983 (amended 2007) and carry out duties in accordance with the code of practice.
• To provide verbal and written evidence to Mental Health Review Tribunals and Hospital Manager's hearings.
• To carry out comprehensive Risk Assessments and participate in Trust's risk management processes such as Health Risk Assessment and Management and Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement Meetings.
• To provide medical leadership to the team.
• Liaise with carers.
• The post holder will be expected to maintain effective communication with other services.
• Provide clinical/educational supervision to junior colleagues.

About us:

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 and 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 cost as we do so. Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Job responsibilities:

• The post holder will be included in the daily consultant on-call rota for Mid Mersey.
• Inpatient care for service users within Mid Mersey region of Mersey Care is provided by Consultants working within the teams at Peasley Cross Hospital St Helens, Hollins Park Hospital at Warrington, Brooker centre at Runcorn and Knowsley Resource centre at Whiston hospital site Knowsley.
• The post holder would be responsible for up to 17 patients on Austen ward. On average there are approximately 4 admissions per week with around 3 discharges.
• About 50-70 per cent of the admitted patients are detained at any given time and there is on average one Mental Health Review Tribunal hearing each week.
• Participation in business planning for the locality and, as appropriate, contribution to the broader strategic and planning work of the Trust.
• Leading the improvement of the quality of care within the team and contribute to improving quality across the system.
• Teaching commitments of post, and support in place to achieve Trust-wide Teaching arrangements in locality/team.
• Participation in undergraduate and postgraduate clinical training.
• Providing educational supervision of trainees and others.
• Expected contribution to clinical governance and responsibility for setting and monitoring standards.
• Participation in clinical audit and other local assurance activities.

Person Specification:

• Qualifications: MB BS or equivalent medical qualification. Desirable: Qualification or higher degree in medical education, clinical research, or management. MRCPsych.
• Eligibility: Fully registered with the GMC with a licence to practise at the time of appointment. Included on the GMC Specialist Register OR within six months. Approved clinician status OR able to achieve within 3 months.
• Transport: Holds and will use valid UK driving license OR provides evidence of proposed alternative.
• Clinical Skills, Knowledge & Experience: Excellent knowledge in specialty. Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Academic Skills & Lifelong Learning: Able to deliver undergraduate or postgraduate teaching and training. Participated in continuous professional development.

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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.