MeDnet - London Deanery

oUr Staff
clInIcal Staff:
at the tavistock centre in north london:
Dr Antony Garelick
(Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy,
Associate Dean, MedNet Service)
Dr Matthias von der Tann
(Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy)
Dr Elizabeth Gibb
(Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy)
Dr Niloufar Harris
(Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy)
at the Maudsley hospital in South london:
Dr Julia Bland (Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy,
Co-Director MedNet Service)
Dr Emma Janes (Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy)
contactS anD aDMInIStratorS
(during offi ce hours, and 24-hr messaging service)
Mrs Chris Loizou
MedNet
Tavistock Centre
120 Belsize Lane
London NW3 5BA
Tel 020 8938 2411
Fax 020 7447 3745
E-mail mednet@tavi-port.nhs.uk
MedNet can also be found on the London Deanery
website: www.londondeanery.ac.uk/mednet
The MedNet research articles on doctors’ health can be
found at:
1. www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/5/26
2. The Psychiatrist - 2011; 35: 206-212
Updated 25.7.2012
Funded by:
MeDnet
confIDentIal conSUltatIon SerVIce
for DoctorS BY DoctorS
at Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust
and at South London & Maudsley NHS Trust
www.londondeanery.ac.uk

who we are where we can help what we offer
MedNet provides doctors and dentists with confidential
consultations, advice about their careers, emotional
support, and when needed, access to other expert help.
This may include more specialised psychotherapeutic
interventions (which embrace all the mainstream modalities
of psychotherapy), or specialised psychiatric advice.
We are staffed by consultant psychiatrists in
psychotherapy, who have seen over 1,000 doctors faceto-face
in the last ten years. Treatment interventions are
tailored to the individual practitioner in the context of a
supportive relationship.
To access MedNet, practitioners, of any grade or
specialty, must live or work within the area covered by the
London Deanery and KSS Deanery.
The service is based at the Tavistock Centre (Camden)
and at the Maudsley Hospital (Camberwell); this enables
practitioners to access services which are geographically
convenient and/or away from their local area of work.
The service is funded by the London Deanery but
operates on the basis of strict confidentiality.
MedNet aims to contribute via research to the body
of knowledge about doctors and their work-related
difficulties in several areas and what might help them to
overcome those difficulties.
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Relationships at work/home
• Burnout and work/life balance
• Bullying/harassment at work
• Obsessive compulsive disorder
• Anger management
• Bipolar illness
• Personality difficulties
• Communication difficulties
• Adjustment difficulties
• Isolation/racism/migration
• Social phobia
• Examination stress
• Inquiry/clinical incident stress
• NCAS/GMC involvement
• Trauma, past or recent
• Bereavement/loss
After contact has been made with MedNet an
assessment of up to approximately six sessions is
offered, the first appointment being within two weeks,
or even less, if urgent.
Following this therapeutic assessment and consultation,
a collaborative decision can be made on what further
action, if any, is needed.
This might include onward referral to a more highly
specialist psychotherapy treatment service, or to a
specialist psychiatric service. Our consultants have
developed links with experts over the last decade.
Subject to capacity, longer term low frequency
psychodynamic psycho-therapy may be offered by the
MedNet consultants themselves.
We do not provide any reports to GPs, tutors, trusts,
NCAS or the GMC. Exceptions are made only in
agreement with the practitioner when collaboration
with other agencies is in the practitioner’s own interest.
Clearly MedNet’s confidentiality policy operates within
GMC guidelines in that we could not protect doctors
who were of actual or potential harm to patients. In
our experience this is rare and almost all practitioners
preserve high quality practice at the expense of their
own health.