Consultant in Old Age Liaison Psychiatry

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Consultant Psychiatrist to join the Old Age Liaison Psychiatry service at Southampton General Hospital. This is a replacement post within a well-established, PLAN-accredited liaison psychiatry service covering the acute hospital.

The post-holder will be employed by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, with an honorary contract at University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.The role provides consultant leadership and clinical expertise to the Old Age Liaison Psychiatry MDT, supporting older adults, people with dementia of any age, and patients whose needs are best met by Older Person’s Mental Health services.

The post includes participation in the Southampton OPMH on-call rota, Responsible Clinician duties supported by an established Mental Health Act administration service, and 1.5 SPA sessions. There are opportunities to develop a special interest aligned with acute hospital services.

Teaching and education are strongly embedded in the service, with active involvement in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and close links with the University of Southampton.

You will join a supportive and experienced liaison psychiatry team and work closely with a wide range of established mental health and acute trust services within a large teaching hospital environment.

Main duties of the job

Consultants will use their skills and expertise to achieve the best care for service users, with a focus on providing supervision and oversight of the team and the assessment and management of complexity and severity. This includes:

Focusing on the management of service users presenting with the greatest complexity and severity will necessitate the consultant working with a small case load in order to be able to respond in a flexible and timely way to the needs of the most unwell and or most urgent.

Managing complex information.

Ensuring appropriate and effective engagement with carers and ward teams.

Management of risk.

Providing Responsible Clinician care for those detained under the Mental Health Act

Consultants will work effectively as a member of the leadership team in collaboration with other clinical and managerial leaders.

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

To record clinical activity accurately and comprehensively.

To participate in service and business planning activity for the service.

To participate in annual appraisal for consultants.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Full Registration with the General Medical
  • Council
  • MRCPsych or recognised equivalent
  • Eligible for inclusion in the Specialist Register or within 6 months of CCT at time of interview. CCT in old age psychiatry.
  • Approved under section 12(2) of the Mental Health Act 1983.

Desirable

  • Relevant Higher Degree e.g., MD, PhD, MSc or other additional clinical qualifications
  • Liaison accreditation.
  • To hold Approved Clinician status
  • at the point of taking up post

Experience

Essential

  • Prior experience of general adult psychiatry
  • Prior experience of working with
  • detained/Mental Health inpatients as
  • senior trainee or consultant.
  • Prior experience in please add in any other essential clinical requirements.
  • Experience of audit and an understanding of the principles of clinical governance.

Desirable

  • Proven commitment to improving the quality of clinical care.
  • Experience of crisis, inpatient or community mental health team care for adults.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Closing Date: 31 August 2026

To apply for this job please visit southernhealth.tal.net.