Posted on: 4 February 2021
Dr Mehtab Ghazi Rahman is the new lead clinician for integrating better physical health for people with serious mental illness.
He says: "People with severe mental illness continue to die 15 to 20 years earlier than the general population. As mental health clinicians, we are in a position to make a significant difference in the quality of physical healthcare our patients receive to reduce this disparity in life expectancy.
"As Physical Health lead, I plan to work closely with my colleagues across the Trust to improve the quality of physical health interventions for our service users through comprehensive cardiometabolic risk assessments, medication monitoring and engaging patients with national screening programmes, and with GPs to ensure our service users have better access to physical healthcare in the community.
"Over the next year, I also look forward to improving the quality of physical health training we provide to our mental health staff, make use of digital technology to improve physical health monitoring and most importantly, work in co-production with our Service Users to understand their physical health priorities and finding ways to successfully implement them."
Dr Rahman is a Consultant Psychiatrist for Nile Ward Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, St Charles Hospital. He qualified from St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Medical School in 2009 and completed his psychiatric training under the St Mary's and Charing Cross training schemes in London.
Dr Rahman joined CNWL in April 2020 as a Consultant Psychiatrist.
In addition to his Consultant role, he is the Trustwide Flu Group Medical Lead, Physical Health Inpatient Lead at St Charles Hospital and the LNC representative for Kensington & Chelsea.
He is a Board Member for CPD Online (CPDO) at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and works closely with various charitable organisations in developing countries.
Dr Rahman has received awards for his quality improvement work in improving physical health in mental health settings and reducing violence in psychiatric intensive care settings.
Dr Rahman replaces Dr Ed Beveridge who has moved to another Trust.