Dr Eleanor Cole

Gender: Female
Primary qualifications: FRCPsych MBA

Eleanor has worked in the NHS for over 34 years.  She trained at the Royal Free Hospital and completed her psychiatric training at the Royal Free / Friern and Bethlem & Maudsley rotations.  She was Consultant Psychiatrist (General Adult), till end 2016, at the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust for 22 years, where she was clinical lead for a number of inpatient and community services.  Her most recent clinical posts have been as consultant psychiatrist supporting patients with mood, anxiety, personality and bipolar affective disorder.

She held a number of key leadership positions in the Trust, notably Clinical Director for Southwark Adult Mental Health services (1994-2010) and was the clinical lead responsible for the Trust-wide rotas (2011-2015), before being appointed Associate Medical Director with same responsibility (2015-2016).In this latter role, she ensured healthy rota configurations and worked alongside Medical HR to support trainees.  Other roles have included Lead Clinician for the interface between the trust front end service and other agencies, mainly primary care and Vice-dean for flexible trainees (2004-2009) in SLaM.  Research and service delivery interests have included first episode psychosis, service development and quality improvement.

She adopts a collaborative approach to working with patients, their carers and staff and appreciates the demands and challenges that healthcare staff face.