The Trust is seeking a Consultant Psychiatrist to work as part of the inpatient team on Austen ward, Hollins Park, Warrington
Austen ward is an all-male general adult ward, with 17 beds. There will be x2 junior doctors for the ward. These may be up to 3 depending on how the training posts are filled in each rotation. The post holder will have clinical supervisor responsibilities for the trainees on the Unit.
The post has become vacant because of the previous post holder retiring after 20+ years of service with the Trust.
At Mersey Care we are passionate about mental health and wellbeing and delivering the best possible care for the people we serve. Quality, recovery and wellbeing are at the heart of everything that we do.
The Trust is focused on driving change and innovation by supporting and enhancing the leadership role of our senior clinicians and this role would offer opportunities for you to lead and develop excellent practice in the field.
Consultant psychiatrist responsibility for all patients on Austen 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 be the Responsible Clinician (RC) for the purposes of the Mental Health Act 1983 (amended 2007) and carry out duties in accordance with the code of practice.
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.
The post holder will be expected to maintain effective communication with other services.
Provide clinical/educational supervision to junior colleagues.
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.
Inpatient care for service users within Mid Mersey region of Mersey Care is provided by Consultants working within the teams at Peasley Cross Hospital St Helens, Hollins Park Hospital at Warrington, Brooker centre at Runcorn and Knowsley Resource centre at Whiston hospital site Knowsley.
Within North Mersey region of Liverpool, Inpatient care is provided within teams at Broadoak Unit, Clock View Hospital, Windsor House, all based in Liverpool, and Hartley Hospital based in Southport.
All wards across the Trust take admissions, as well as patient transfers.
The post holder would be responsible for up to 17 patients on Austen ward. On average there are approximately 4 admissions per week with around 3 discharges. About 50-70 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.
Clinical Leadership:
Participation in business planning for the locality and, as appropriate, contribution to the broader strategic and planning work of the
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
• Trust-wide
• Teaching arrangements in locality/team.
• Participation in undergraduate and postgraduate clinical
• Participation in the training of other
• Providing educational supervision of trainees and other
• Taking part in continuing medical education within statutory
• DME is Dr Indira Vinjamuri
• Mersey Care has specific links with Liverpool Medical School and Edge Hill University Medical School
The post holder would be expected to be approved as a Responsible Clinician or be willing to undertake training to obtain AC status / Section 12(2) MHA and will be expected to renew this approval according to agreed procedures.
Clinical Duties:
• Consultant psychiatrist responsibility for Austen ward, Warrington.
• 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 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 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/educational supervision to junior colleagues.
Training Duties:
• Participation in undergraduate and postgraduate clinical
• Participation in the training of other
• Providing educational supervision of trainees and other
· Taking part in continuing medical education within statutory limits.
Clinical Governance:
• Expected contribution to clinical governance and responsibility for setting and monitoring standards.
• Participation in clinical audit and other local assurance
· Participation in service/team evaluation and the planning of future service developments.
On Call and cover arrangements:
The post holder will be included in the daily consultant on-call rota for Mid Mersey. There is usually always a higher trainee ST4-6 as second on call and a CT first on call during weekday evenings & nights and all-day weekends. On-call availability supplement is 1% - Band B low frequency, low intensity and has been consistently for many years. The rota is currently shared with approximately 20 FTE colleagues. When on-call the consultant is expected to cancel their routine work during normal working hours to prioritise unpredictable / emergency calls.
Please see job description for further details.
This advert closes on Monday 15 Dec 2025