Consultant Psychiatrist – Addictions

We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity for a Consultant Psychiatrist to join our dedicated team at The Hope Centre, a 17-bed regional inpatient detoxification unit within Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

You will work closely with a multidisciplinary team of nurses, healthcare assistants, and junior doctors to deliver high-quality, patient-centred care to individuals undergoing detoxification from drugs and alcohol

This post would be ideal for a new or established consultant looking to develop research interests as the centre has developed a new Ketamine detox protocol. Mersey Care has recently collaborated with the University of Liverpool to create the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre.

Merseyside and the surrounding areas offer an exceptional quality of life:

Easy access to the Lake District , Yorkshire Dales , and North Wales

Excellent schools , local beaches , and family-friendly communities

A vibrant cultural scene with art galleries , concert venues , and sporting events

Consultant psychiatrist will have responsibility for their caseload and inpatients.

To supervise and support team members who carry out assessments of patients referred to the team. To carry out comprehensive psychiatric assessments for new admissions and provide medical interventions for patients.

Supporting staff to manage psychiatric emergencies.

To conduct patient reviews and lead Multidisciplinary reviews, CPA reviews, discharge planning meetings and multi-professional meetings

To be the responsible clinician for the purposes of the Mental Health Act 1983 (amended 2007) and carry out duties in accordance with the code of practice.

To carry out comprehensive Risk Assessments and participate in Trust's risk management processes such as Health Risk Assessment and Management Meetings (H-RAMM) and Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) Meetings if required.

To provide medical leadership to the team.

Maintain high level of effective communication with other parts of the Mental health service across the Trust, across maternity services and primary care.

Liaison with families / carers

Liaison with aspects of the Criminal Justice System regarding patients, where necessary.

Liaising with other stakeholders and interested parties.

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.

The Addictions Services at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust currently provides integrated drug and alcohol inpatient detoxification services for patients across Merseyside. It is a regional detox unit with 17 inpatient beds. The post holder will work closely with a multidisciplinary team of nurses, health care assistants and junior doctors to deliver a high quality inpatient care.

The unit is supported by a (this post) Consultant Psychiatrists, 1.0 WTE Foundation Year trainee or 1.0 WTE psychiatry trainees cover from the local rotation (once applicant in post) . There is also a SAS Doctor for the service. There will be an opportunity to also act as clinical supervisor for the trainees based on the ward. The Consultant would be supported by the above trainees during admission of the patients on the ward, follow-ups and ward rounds. The trainees are placed at Inpatient Services as part of their training experience. There may be opportunities for ST special interest sessional support too. Postholder will be expected to support trainees and also see new patients.

The unit receives patients who are not suitable for community detox and referrals are made by respective locality-based community drug and alcohol teams. The unit only admits patients with robust after care plans to improve its success rate and promote abstinence based approaches during inpatient stay. Patients in the unit tend to have co morbid physical, mental health needs and a history of poly substance use. The ward round occurs twice a week and the Consultant in post would be expected to lead ward rounds during the week. Addictions Services has actively promoted recovery with drug and alcohol services and the impact is very visible within the units. There are well established groups that run within the wards along with pharmacological intervention to help patients recover and maintain their recovery goals.

There are excellent links with local hepatologist and well established referral pathways into acute hospital that is located within the same site. The approximate waiting list for inpatient admission tends to vary between 4-6 weeks. The Consultant will have the clinical responsibility to prioritise admissions based on clinical needs. The bed occupancy at Inpatient Addictions Services is between 85-90%. We receive approximately referrals per year. The number of admissions to the unit vary from per year depending on the length of stay.