Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

This vacancy is for a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist for Ashworth High Secure Hospital (HSS) which is one of the 3 high secure hospitals in the country.
You will be part of a comprehensive MDT with good trainee medical support. You will manage a caseload of 20 +/- 2 male inpatients within the Personality Disorder service and be involved in managing referrals and completing assessments. You will maintain responsibility for the patient throughout his journey through the hospital and will lead the multidisciplinary team.
You will act as Responsible Clinician within a multidisciplinary team. You will take part in assessments of new referrals, pre-admission planning, management of inpatients and discharge planning.
You will be required to undertake assessments of individuals referred for admission from a variety of sources including Medium secure units, Low Secure Units, general adult or old age mental health services, Courts or Prisons. Liaison with other agencies, including the Ministry of Justice, police, probation, social care and other mental health services.
You will exercise statutory responsibilities as a Responsible Clinician within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1983 (Amended 2007) for patients detained under Restriction Orders, including completing statutory reports to the Ministry of Justice. For both non-restricted and restricted patients under your care you will be responsible for providing reports regarding Consent to Treatment and providing reports to, and attending, Tribunals and Managers’ Reviews.
You will be expected to be approved under Section 12(2) of the Mental Health Act 1983 for the purposes of recommending admission to hospital and be an Approved Clinician.
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.
Clinical Responsibilities
Responsible for leading a multidisciplinary team in the care and treatment of a full caseload 20 +/-2 inpatients. The actual number of inpatients and their location will be subject to agreement between the Appointee and Clinical Director and will be clearly identified in the job plan. The multi-disciplinary team will usually comprise of the consultant, a trainee doctor, clinical psychologist, social worker, occupational therapist and nursing staff. There is also access to a senior pharmacist.
Referrals for Admission
You will be expected to visit other hospitals and prisons for the purposes of assessing new referrals and their suitability for admission to high security.
Ashworth Hospital receives approximately 70 referrals for admission annually. The appointee will be allocated referrals on an equitable rotational basis.
Referrals for admission to the hospital are always assessed by one of the hospital consultants. The authority for admission to a high secure hospital has been devolved to a local admissions panel which is chaired by a senior psychiatrist with a multidisciplinary membership. You will be expected to liaise with this group regarding his/her recommendations for admission.
Transfer or Discharge of Patients
You will be expected to make recommendations on behalf of his/her clinical team regarding the suitability of patients for transfer or discharge from and within the Hospital.
Management
You will be expected to participate in the management of the wards where his/her patients are based and attend patient care team meetings and other ward-related meetings as appropriate.
Please see job description for further details.
This advert closes on Sunday 25 Feb 2024