Consultant Psychiatrist in Older Adults Liaison Psychiatry

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job Overview

This is a rare opportunity to join the highly-regarded multidisciplinary liaison service at Homerton University Hospital in Hackney. There are opportunities to work flexibly and good support from a collegiate consultant body within the team and the wider Directorate.

Homerton University Hospital (HUH) NHS Foundation Trust provides a liaison psychiatry service which has a single point of access available 24 hours a day 7 days a week and is available to all patients with mental health conditions, dementia/delirium, substance misuse and medically unexplained symptoms who present to acute care. This service has been funded and designed in line with NHS England’s ‘Core 24’ model of liaison psychiatry. Homerton Psychological Medicine (HPM) is a multidisciplinary assessment and brief intervention service providing expert advice, support and training to clinicians at the Homerton University Hospital Emergency Department (ED) and wards.

Main duties of the job

This is a less than full-time (0.8) substantive post. The post-holder will provide clinical leadership and work with the team manager and service lead to deliver high quality assessment and treatment to the population of adults and older adults who are attending Homerton Hospital Emergency Department (ED) due to mental health concerns, as well as for patients admitted to the acute wards at Homerton Hospital for physical health issues, and also require psychiatric input or advice. They will contribute to the overall management and service development of the service. We are keen to develop clinical and medical leadership. This post is suitable for an older adult consultant who is ready to also work with working age adults, or for a dual-trained adult & older adult consultant. Whilst this is an older adult post, the team is small and there is considerable cross-covering between consultants, so it is expected that the postholder will also carry out assessments of working age adults

Working for our organisation

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

For further information relating to this vacancy please see attached job description and person specification.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• 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 (older adult or dual older adult/adult)
• Approved under S12 OR able to achieve within 3 months of appointment
• MRCPsych or equivalent
• Approved clinician status OR able to achieve within 3 months of appointment
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Qualification or higher degree in medical education, clinical research or management.
  
  

Skills/Abilities

Essential criteria

• Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge
• Ability to manage clinical complexity and uncertainty
• Ability and commitment to work with service users in service development and delivery
  
  

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rated 'Outstanding' in 2021. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other Reasons To Apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

AI in applications

If you use AI or other tools to assist in writing your job application, make sure you add your own personal touch— especially in the supporting information section. AI can make writing easier, but it doesn’t fully understand the position you’re applying for and might generate false or misleading information. Applications written only by AI often sound generic and may not show your real skills, knowledge, or experience. It’s important to write your supporting statement in your own words. East London NHS Foundation Trust does not recommend relying only on AI, as it could negatively impact on your chance of success in the application process.

We carefully check applications to make sure no one has an unfair advantage, and we verify all references. At the interview, you’ll be asked about your experience, so be honest and ensure everything in your application is accurate. Please remember that using AI during the interview is not allowed.

What Next?

If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

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