DESCRIPTION OF PLACEMENT:
Craig is responsible for the community and in-patient care of the general adult patients (16-64) of 6 local GP practices (26 GPs) with a total population (all ages) of 39,000.

The area covered is South Central Blackpool, an area lying in the shadow of Blackpool Pleasure Beach. This area is moderately densely populated and of moderate deprivation. As a generalisation our patients are a friendly and appreciative group amongst whom lie some interesting and charming characters.

Craig and the SpR’s offices are at The Beeches CMHT. All other CMHT professionals are conveniently based here and community patients are reviewed here also.

The CMHT operates fully under CPA and has a centralised referral system; all referrals are addressed and dealt with by our “duty and assessment” team in the first instance. Those complicated referrals or those obviously requiring multidisciplinary CMHT intervention are brought to weekly allocation for discussion.

Craig has worked in a fairly determined way over the last 2 years to move to a new way of working with community patients. Craig no longer does “traditional” out patient clinic and the majority of community reviews (including new patient assessments) are now multidisciplinary CPA reviews booked and organised by the care co-ordinators. This means that the care coordinator always attends, the agendas for the meeting are usually clear, we can be more confident about assessments of risk and clearer about the patient’s pathway of care through our CMHT towards appropriate discharge to primary care or transfer elsewhere.

Craig is also the RMO for these patients when they are admitted to Parkwood Hospital. Patients are admitted to one of two female wards, one of two male wards or a 6 bedded PICU. The average number of inpatients is about 10.

CORE PLACEMENT: Yes

ROLE OF TRAINEE:
Working in this sectorised way, covering in-patients and out patients, will allow the trainee a great deal of variety and flexibility to their working week. It should allow for a satisfying sense of continuity of care with the trainee’s patients.

In the community the trainee will provide medical input and advice into CPA reviews and will have the opportunity to provide other clinical support to the CMHT depending of the trainee’s interests. All CPA reviews will have been arranged by the care coordinators who always attend. There will be no expectation for the trainee to become care coordinator for patients themselves unless the trainee wished to do so for educational purpose.

The trainee would be expected to integrate into the CMHT and enthusiastically contribute to maintaining positive team dynamics and help us identify and rectify any problems.

The trainee will have the opportunity to play a lead role in setting high professional standards in communicating and forging links with other teams (AOT, EIS, HTT and Forensic Services) following the patient’s journey through the CMHT.

The trainee will also have the opportunity to manage some of the Craig’s in-patients. This will allow experience of continuity of care as patients move from the community to hospital and then home again and allow the opportunity to write and present reports for MHRT/Managers reviews.

The proportion of time spent involved with community patients or in-patients (including the number and category of in-patients) will be flexible and reflect the trainee’s interests and training needs.

The following timetable is an example only and every aspect of it will be flexible.

EXAMPLE SPR TIMETABLE:

ON CALL:
Currently this is on the second on call rota at a frequency of 1 in 10. Approval under S12 MHA will be supported and there will be opportunities to review urgent cases under MHA independently in A/E and, if the trainee wishes to do so, either independently or with consultant support (consultants are third on call) in the community.

SAFETY AND INDUCTION:
The trust offers a 3 day induction programme at the very beginning on the post held centrally and locally covering the college’s safety requirements, breakaway and CPD.

FACILITIES:
There is a well equipped PGE Centre on the Blackpool Victoria Hospital site (the same site as Parkwood in-patient unit) with an excellent library and full time librarian. The Trust has its central PGE site at The Lantern Centre in Preston.

SUPERVISION: Formal supervision of one hour will be structured into the timetable.

TEACHING/ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE:
The trainer is the MMC/Transition/ST (STGP)/F1/F2 lead and has teaching interests in teaching and assessing interview skills with particular reference to validating PMETB assessment tools. The trainee will be able to contribute to organising local training (including GP & Foundation) and performing and coordinating assessments.

AUDIT/RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES:
SHOs are involved in presenting 4 audit session per 6 months in our in house teaching. There are opportunities for research throughout LCT and Craig would point the trainee in the right direction depending on their interests.

MANAGEMENT TRAINING:
In addition to contributing to the practical management issues addressed by the senior management group relating to clinical matters of the CMHT the trainee will have opportunities to participate in local and trust wide consultant meetings. There will be opportunities to contribute to developing trust policies and clinical governance issues. If any of these represent areas of special interest they can be built into the timetable accordingly.

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE AVAILABLE:
The trainer has experience in providing medico legal reports and could provide training and opportunities for the trainee to write reports as an expert witness if s/he wished.

DESCRIPTION OF ANY SPECIAL INTEREST SESSIONS OFFERED: