Dr Mayura Deshpande

Summary

Challenges to quality, safety and professional autonomy in psychiatry are high, and belief in evidence-based psychiatry has been eroded. I am standing for Registrar because have substantial experience of working with governments, influencing policy and promoting evidence-based psychiatry, and will champion our profession, our members, our patients and their families.

My statement in full

This statement will soon be available in Welsh.

I am seeking your support to be the next Registrar of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. As the Associate Registrar for Policy Support, I understand how to use RCPsych mechanisms effectively. If elected, I will advance our profession’s goals, enhance our influence in policy, foster members’ professional development, and support our diverse membership.

I understand the pressures we face as psychiatrists across the UK and internationally – with serious mental illness invisible in national policy, shrinking budgets, not enough psychiatrists, nurses or therapists to provide safe and effective care, crumbling estates, and unfit information technology. Above all I’m concerned that governments and employers don’t see the value of what psychiatrists bring to mental healthcare. We have decreasing autonomy to provide good care, but are held responsible when things go wrong. There is a delusion that psychiatrists can be replaced with less qualified staff.

I’m especially concerned that despite achieving 100% fill rates at core postgraduate training with bright, compassionate doctors, many senior residents, specialty and associate specialist doctors, and consultants are leaving the profession. I have experienced first-hand the inequalities faced by international medical graduates.

I am a forensic psychiatrist with experience of adult and adolescent psychiatry, management and research. I work as a national expert clinical advisor, advising on community and inpatient transformation for mental illness and neurodiversity, service pathways, workforce, quality standards, and legislation including the Mental Health Bill. As Associate Registrar for Policy Support I have influenced the rollout of national NHS programmes, ensuring that members’ views are heard and the importance of psychiatrists as leaders of the multidisciplinary team is acknowledged. I know how to represent our profession with national governments, mental health providers, and regulators across the UK.

As Registrar, my priorities will be to influence the three pillars of an effective system - workforce training, recruitment, retention and wellbeing; funding; and service design and delivery. I will:

• Represent, champion and support psychiatrists
• Fight for resources for services, training and research
• Promote evidence-based psychiatry to improve service standards

I will ensure RCPsych develops resources and nurtures members’ development and wellbeing to help us look after our patients well. I will refresh our media strategy to promote public understanding, the importance of psychiatric care, and the unique value of psychiatrists. I will use my experience and negotiating skills with governments and national bodies to help bridge the chasm between policy positions and clinical reality in our four nations, improve working conditions, and ensure services work for both staff and patients. By supporting members to develop clinical guidance in collaboration with other professional societies, I will maintain RCPsych’s position as an authority on clinical standards and help services deliver high quality, evidence-based care.

Our patients and their families deserve services based on good quality evidence, not ideology. Our members deserve respect at work and the support needed to care compassionately and effectively for patients. If elected, I will be a visible and responsive Registrar who has the credibility and skills to achieve our goals.