Consultant Psychiatrist Acute Female Ward

Following a review of workload and processes across the inpatient pathway, 3 additional posts have been created across the whole acute IP service in LYPFT, where each ward will be staffed by a fulltime Consultant Psychiatrist and either a (Multi-Professional Approved Clinician MPAC eg Nurse Consultant, or by a less than full time Consultant Psychiatrist. The successful applicant will provide additional medical and clinical leadership to the acute inpatient service across the Becklin and the Newsam centres. The bed base will be shared proportionately between the two Consultants in order that the fulltime post holder does not hold responsibility for in excess of 16 beds at any one time (except for short periods when providing cover). Ward 5 (a female acute ward) already works within a similar model where there are two Approved Clinicians - a fulltime Consultant Psychiatrist and a MPAC.

Each acute ward accepts admissions from all over Leeds. It is likely that bed occupancy will be above 90% at all times and that the majority will be detained. Though co-morbid substance misuse is common in the inpatient group, as is personality disorder, the primary reason for admission is relapse of psychotic illness or mood disorder. The Consultant Psychiatrist will be responsible for their bed base, providing clinical expertise into the assessment and management of this acutely unwell group. Each working day starts with the PIPA report out meeting at 9am. This is a rapid, structured, responsive and MDT review of all the patients to establish tasks for the day. It is anticipated that one of the advantages of this model will be to not only reduce workload, but to share some of the risk and complexity by using each other's expertise and opinion in the most complex scenarios. An important clinical and financial priority of the acute inpatient service line is to minimise out of area admissions, and to ensure that the population of Leeds is able to access acute mental healthcare locally. Sound and timely clinical decision making within the MDT setting is expected of the Consultant Psychiatrist and effective liaison is an important part of the role.