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Job summary

Main area
Mental Health Psychiatry
Grade
Specialty Doctor
Contract
6 months (6 months fixed term post, with a view to extend to 12 months following review)
Hours
Full time - 10 sessions per week (PA's- 10, SPA- 2, DCC- 8)
Job ref
350-MED7348744
Employer
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Clock View Hospital
Town
Liverpool
Salary
£59,175 - £95,400 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
14/08/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust logo

Specialty Doctor – Adult Inpatients

Specialty Doctor

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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.

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Job overview

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic Specialty Doctor in Psychiatry to join our inpatient teams at Clock View Hospital. This is a fixed-term post supporting the Consultant Psychiatrists across two acute wards: Dee Ward (female) and Morris Ward (male).

About Clock View Hospital

Opened in 2015, Clock View is a modern, purpose-built adult mental health facility located in Walton, Liverpool. The hospital includes:

  • Three acute adult wards: Alt (mixed), Dee (female), and Morris (male)
  • Newton Ward – Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
  • Irwell Ward – Older Adults Mental Health

All wards accept both direct admissions and patient transfers, offering a dynamic and collaborative working environment.

Why Join Us?

At Mersey Care, we are passionate about mental health and wellbeing. We are committed to delivering high-quality, recovery-focused care and supporting the communities we serve. Our values are rooted in compassion, innovation, and excellence.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to:

  • Work closely with experienced Consultants and multidisciplinary teams
  • Contribute to high standards of patient care and service development
  • Take on leadership opportunities and help shape clinical practice
  • Be part of a forward-thinking Trust that values continuous improvement and clinician-led innovation

If you are a motivated and compassionate doctor looking to make a meaningful impact in mental health care, we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

·       Support the Consultant Psychiatrist providing medical input for patients across Dee ward and Morris 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 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.

·         To maintain effective communication with other services. 

·         Provide clinical supervision to junior colleagues.

Working for our organisation

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Local working arrangements 

·  Inpatient care for service users is provided by Consultants working within the Acute Care teams at Broadoak Unit, Clock View Hospital, Windsor House, all based in Liverpool, and Hartley Hospital based in Southport. 

 

·         Clock View Hospital is an adult mental health facility based in Walton, Liverpool opened in 2015.  There are 3 acute adult wards namely: Alt (mixed ward), Dee (female), and Morris (male).   Clock view also houses Newton ward which is a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and an old age ward, Irwell.  All wards across the Trust take admissions, as well as patient transfers.

 

The ward composition at Clock View Hospital is as below:

 

Ward Name

Beds

 

Gender

Service line

Weekly average no. of  admissions & discharges

(21/05/2022-21/05/2024)

Alt

 

17

Mixed

Adult

4 admissions

4 discharges

Dee

17

Female

Adult

 

3 admissions

3 discharges

Irwell

17

Mixed

Old age

 

2 admissions

2 discharges

Morris

17

Male

Adult

3 admissions

3 discharges

Newton

12

Mixed

Adult (PICU)

2 admissions

2 discharges

 

 

The post has become vacant as a result of the reconfiguration of the medical model.

 

The post holder would support the Consultants across two wards, Dee ward, and Morris ward.  Dee ward is a female ward with 17 beds.  On average there are approximately 3 admissions per week to Dee ward with around 3 discharges. About 25-50 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. 

 

Morris ward is a male ward with 17 beds.  On average there are approximately 3 admissions per week to Dee ward with around 3 discharges. About 25-50 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. 

 

There is 1 Consultant Psychiatrist allocated to each ward.  Each ward also has 1-2 resident doctors.  The post holder will be supported by an inpatient ward manager, deputy ward manager and team of inpatient ward based staff.

 

 

Continuing professional development (CPD)

·       The Trust supports the participation of all medical staff in the CPD programme locally and that of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

·       The Trust support for CPD activities, including study leave arrangements and appropriate funding.

 

 Clinical leadership and medical management 

·       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 and training

·       Teaching commitments of post, and support in place to achieve these.

·       Trust-wide teaching.

·       Teaching arrangements in locality/team.

·       Participation in undergraduate and postgraduate clinical teaching.

·       Participation in the training of other disciplines.

·       Providing educational supervision of trainees and other disciplines.

·       Taking part in continuing medical education within statutory limits.

·       DME is Dr Indira Vinjamuri

·       Mersey Care has specific links with Liverpool Medical School and Edge Hill University Medical School

 Mental Health Act and Section 12(2) approval

·       The post holder would be expected to be approved under Section 12(2) of the Mental Health Act 1983, or be willing to undertake training to obtain Section 12(2) MHA and will be expected to renew this approval according to agreed procedures.

Clinical duties of post holder

·         Support the Consultant Psychiatrist providing medical input for patients across Dee ward, and Morris ward. 

·         Carry out comprehensive psychiatric assessments and provide treatment for inpatients.

·         Support ward based staff to manage psychiatric emergencies.  

·         Conduct patient reviews and lead multidisciplinary ward reviews, CPA reviews and multi-professional meetings.

·         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 Meetings (H-RAMM) and Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) Meetings.

·         To provide medical leadership to the inpatient team.

·         Liaise with families / carers.

·         Liaise with aspects of the Criminal Justice System regarding patients.

·         Liaise with other stakeholders and interested parties.

·         The post holder will be expected to maintain effective communication with other services, including in-patient and community mental health teams, and primary care.  

·         Provide clinical supervision to junior colleagues.

·         Provide cross cover to other wards when required.

  Training duties

·       Participation in undergraduate and postgraduate clinical teaching.

·       Participation in the training of other disciplines.

·       Providing educational supervision of trainees and other disciplines.

·       Taking part in continuing medical education within statutory limits.

·       Engage in supervision with supervising consultants.

  Clinical governance and quality assurance

·       Expected contribution to clinical governance and responsibility for setting and monitoring standards.

·       Participation in clinical audit and other local assurance processes.

·       Participation in service/team evaluation and the planning of future service developments.

  Quality improvement

·       Leads and manages a team in a way that supports the development of a culture of continuous improvement and learning.

·       Utilises a quality improvement approach to think systemically about complex problems, develop potential change ideas and test these in practice using a systematic QI methodology.

·       Empowers the team to resolve local issues on a daily basis using the tools and method of quality improvement without staff having to seek permission.

·       Promotes awareness and understanding of quality improvement, and shares learning and successes from quality improvement work.

 General duties

·       To undertake the administrative duties associated with the care of patients.

·       To record clinical activity accurately and comprehensively and submit this promptly to the Information Department.

·       To participate in annual appraisal.

·       To attend and participate in the academic programme of the Trust, including lectures and seminars as part of the internal CPD programme.

·       To maintain professional registration with the General Medical Council, Mental Health Act Section 12(2) approval, and to abide by professional codes of conduct.

·       To participate annually in a job plan review with the clinical manager, which will include consultation with a relevant manager in order to ensure that the post is developed to take into account changes in service configuration and delivery associated with modernisation.

·       To comply with the Trust’s agreed policies, procedures, standing orders and financial instructions, and to take an active role in the financial management of the service and support the medical director and other managers in preparing plans for services.

 

    External duties, roles and responsibilities

·         The Trust actively supports the involvement of the consultant body in regional and national groups subject to discussion and approval with the medical director and, as necessary, the chief executive officer.

 

  Other duties

·         From time to time it may be necessary for the post holder to carry out such other duties as may be assigned, with agreement, by the Trust. It is expected that the post holder will not unreasonably withhold agreement to any reasonable proposed changes that the Trust might make.

 

  Work programme

·         It is envisaged that the post holder will work 10 programmed activities over 5 days. Following appointment there will be a meeting at no later than three months with the clinical manager to review and revise the job plan and objectives of the post holder. The overall split of the programmed activities is 8 to be devoted to direct clinical care and 2 to supporting professional activities. The timetable is indicative only. A formal job plan will be agreed between the post holder and associate medical director or clinical manager three months after commencing the post and at least annually thereafter.

 On-call and cover arrangements

There is no on call commitment however the post holder may have the opportunity to join the second on call out of hours rota for Higher Trainees subject to availability. 

 

 

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • MB BS or equivalent medical qualification.
Desirable criteria
  • Qualification or higher degree in medical education, clinical research or management.
  • MRCPsych
  • Additional clinical qualifications.

Eligibility

Essential criteria
  • Fully registered with the GMC with a licence to practise at the time of appointment
  • Approved under S12 OR able to achieve with 3 months of appointment
  • Minimum 3 years experience working in psychiatry
Desirable criteria
  • In good standing with GMC with respect to warning and conditions on practice

Transport

Essential criteria
  • Holds and will use valid UK driving licence OR provides evidence of proposed alternative

Clinical Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Essential criteria
  • Excellent knowledge in specialty
  • Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills in English
  • Able to manage clinical complexity and uncertainty
  • Makes decisions based on evidence and experience including the contribution of others
  • Able to meet duties under MHA and MCA
Desirable criteria
  • Wide range of specialist and sub-specialist experience relevant to post within NHS or comparable service

Academic Skills and Lifelong Learning

Essential criteria
  • Able to deliver undergraduate or postgraduate teaching and training
  • Ability to work in and lead team
  • Demonstrate commitment to shared leadership & collaborative working to deliver improvement
  • Participated in continuous professional development
  • Participated in research or service evaluation
  • Able to use and appraise clinical evidence
  • Has actively participated in clinical audit and quality improvement programmes
Desirable criteria
  • Able to plan and deliver undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training relevant to this post
  • Reflected on purpose of CPD undertaken
  • Experienced in clinical research and / or service evaluation
  • Evidence of achievement in education, research, audit and service improvement: awards, prizes, presentations and publications
  • Has led clinical audits leading to service change or improved outcomes to patients

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Fair Employment Charter Status - Aspiring LevelVeteran AwareApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleCare quality commission - GoodArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardCTP The Ministry of Defence partnering with Right ManagementNavajo - Merseyside and CheshireDisability confident employerCare Leaver CovenantStep into healthArmed Forces Covenant

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Zoe Bentley
Job title
Medical Workforce Lead
Email address
[email protected]
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