We welcome applicants to apply for a consultant psychiatry post at CNTW trust in the Regional Affective Disorders Service (RADS) service. RADS is a tertiary level specialist service that has been in existence for over 30 years. Its primary clinical function is to provide assessment, advice and management for difficult to treat mood disorders and related conditions. The service continues to be at the forefront of innovation, enabled by the service’s links with Newcastle University and the role that clinical academic links play within the service.
RADS is one of a limited number of specialist/tertiary level affective disorders services in the UK providing both outpatient and in-patient care for patients with difficult to treat mood disorders. RADS clinicians are members of the Northern Centre for Mood Disorders (NCMD), which is a collaboration between Newcastle University and CNTW NHS Foundation Trust. NCMD provides public and professional education around mood disorders and supports a wide range of research. Patients attending RADS may be approached about ongoing research opportunities.
Please note we can not sponsor GMC for this role.
Please note this vacancy will close once sufficient applications have been received.
For further details / informal visits contact:
Name: Dr Stuart Watson, consultant
Email: [email protected]
The service works with patients aged 18 and over in secondary care with complex and/or treatment resistant affective disorders including patients in older peoples’ services. RADS occasionally engage in the assessment and management of treatment refractory conditions complicated by an affective component e.g., obsessive compulsive disorder with associated depression. It is expected that patients referred to RADS will have failed to respond to, or not tolerated, interventions recommended for use in routine secondary care mental health services by current guidelines (NICE and BAP). A RADS assessment includes case formulation, diagnostic opinion, risk assessment, symptom severity rating and recommendations for future treatment. Treatment recommendations fall into 5 broad categories:
treatments within existing guidelines
treatments out-with guidelines but within secondary care competency (e.g.,agomelatine, lurasidone, maintenance ECT)
treatments out-with guidelines and beyond normal secondary care practice (e.g., pramipexole, anticholinergics, self-regulation CBT, (es)ketamine, clomipramine/bupropion combination)
treatments that are only provided by tertiary level services such as RADS. These include novel pharmacological treatments, rTMS, VNS and specialist multidisciplinary inpatient assessment and treatment (see in-patient services below)
treatments provided by quaternary services (e.g., DBS, cingulotomy).
Why us?
U p to £8k relocation package
30 days study leave (every 3 years)
Flexible working opportunities created with you involved in your job plan
Remote working available as suits service needs
Dedicated and protected SPA time
Focus on creating a healthy workforce by investing heavily in health and wellbeing accessible support including emotional, physical, social, psychological financial and career well being
Teaching and research opportunities available
Stimulating CPD sessions and programs including mentoring, medical leadership, and coaching
Teaching opportunities in our brand-new state of the art Medical Education Centre
Employee Excellence awards
Plus, lots more employee benefits including discounts. Find out more at www.thriveatcntw.co.uk
As an added bonus, the Trust is located in the Northeast of England and Cumbria which is an area of outstanding natural beauty, containing national parks, ancient heritage sites and major cities supported by excellent national and international transport links. The area is predominantly rural and contains the Lake District National Park which is considered one of England’s finest areas of natural beauty.
The post-holder will contribute to the delivery and ongoing development of RADS, with the expectation of supporting and enhancing the neuromodulation offer. They will be based in the outpatient team. Some specific roles:
The appointed consultant will be expected to contribute to cross-cover arrangements for the RADS inpatient ward (Gibside), alongside the other outpatient consultants. This typically involves providing remote support for clinical queries and time-sensitive issues when the designated inpatient consultant is unavailable. Dedicated resident doctor cover will often be present on Gibside to support and action plans.
Provide specialist advice, formulation and treatment-planning support to colleagues within and outside CNTW regarding difficult-to-treat mood disorders. Advice regarding patients not directly assessed by the post-holder will be provided as professional-to-professional consultation.
Lead, with multidisciplinary colleagues, the RADS clinical pathway for implanted vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in difficult-to-treat depression, including suitability assessment, liaison regarding funding and surgical referral processes, device programming and optimisation, long-term follow-up, shared-care advice to referrers and community mental health teams, and governance of the VNS caseload including arrangements mandated by NICE for research and clinical audit.
Work with the other RADS consultants in supporting the care of inpatients specifically on the moods-disorder ward/Gibside, as required, through planned cross-cover arrangements
With our population we need to ensure that the treatments that we offer are optimally combined. It is also important that we support colleagues in the delivery of biological and psychological treatments. Most patients referred have already had treatments in category 1, and we most often recommend treatments in categories 2-4.
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further details.
