National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine (NICPM)
You can now read about our CQC rating from the 2018 inspection.
The National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine delivers biopsychosocial holistic care for people with complex medically unexplained symptoms and physical / psychological comorbidities.
The NICPM is an eight bed specialist inpatient unit based at Leeds General Infirmary. It is a unique service which has a history over many years of delivering services within Leeds and West Yorkshire, and since 2009 has been successfully treating patients from across the UK.
Our team specialise in helping people with the following types of problems:
- Severe and complex medically unexplained symptoms and illness
- Psychological difficulties affecting the management of long-term physical health conditions (physical / psychological comorbidities) at a serious level of severity
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) – we provide the inpatient care for the Leeds and West Yorkshire ME/CFS service
Approximately half of our beds are commissioned for Leeds residents and half for people from across the UK. For Leeds residents we also provide a service for people with mixed physical and psychological difficulties which may be complicated but at a more moderate or lower level of severity.
Our aim is to help people make significant improvements to their health and quality of life. Our clinical outcomes are often very good and patient feedback is very positive as you will see in our annual reports at the end of this page.
We are proud of our highly experienced team who provide outstanding care. The professionals in our team include:
Liaison psychiatry doctors- Nurses
- Occupational therapists
- Physiotherapists
- Cognitive behavioural therapists
- Dieticians
- Pharmacists
- Administrators.
We have a very experienced and expert team who, between them, have a broad range of specialist training, including in general/physical medicine, mental health, physical, occupational, and cognitive behavioural therapies.
We can also draw on expertise from other teams including:
- Medical and surgical teams within the general hospital system, across the full range of specialties
- Psychosexual and relationship therapists
What to expect
The visiting times on the unit are 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 8pm. You can download and view more information for patients, families and carers below:
- Service Information Leaflet
- Pre-admission Information
- Patient Information booklet
- Frequently Asked Questions
Our carer and patient stories and what makes us proud
A few of our carers and former patients have kindly shared about their time with us and their recovery. You can read them all below:
Patient feedback
We are acknowledged as the only specialist NHS inpatient unit for people suffering with severe ME/CFS by the British Association for CFS/ME.
We have been named as a national example of how to provide high quality care for people with medically unexplained physical symptoms.
We have also been identified as the only NHS unit delivering integrated mental and physical inpatient treatment for patients with severe and complex medically unexplained physical symptoms in any bodily system.
We are fully compliant with guidance on ME/CFS, IBS, and Multimorbidity as set by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
Our whole team has been presented with the Trust Award for Improving Health and Improving Lives.
For referring clinicians
Unfortunately, starting from December 2022, we have made the difficult decision to close to new referrals for patients who are not registered with a Leeds GP. The rationale for doing so is it that the demands of delivering care during the pandemic have led to significant backlogs for patients referred to NICPM, with the average wait for admission recently peaking at 2 -3 years from the point of funding being agreed.
We have not closed to Leeds referrals due to the commissioning arrangements that we have with Leeds ICB.
We understand that this will be disappointing for patients wanting to be referred to our service, but we do not believe that it is clinically appropriate to accept someone onto our waiting list when we do not have a satisfactory timescale in which to offer them treatment.
We will be reviewing this position in 12 months’ time when we hope that the service can open to new referrals.
To refer a patient to the NICPM, please send a detailed referral letter to:
Sarah Eastland
Service Co-ordinator
National Inpatient Centre for Psychological Medicine
Leeds General Infirmary
Great George Street
Leeds
LS1 3EX
The list of required contents for referral letters is as follows:
- History and nature of the condition
- Severity and impact
- Previous services involved
- Investigations carried out
- Treatment approaches tried
- Current services and ongoing treatment
- Any aspects of particular concern
- Please check and let us know if the patient has tested positive for CRE (Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae)
- Please also include the patient’s GP details
Funding request process
After the referral has been received a decision will be made, by the senior clinical team, about the suitability of our service. If appropriate, we will then correspond with the patient’s General Practitioner about the process for making a request for funding to the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
Annual reviews, reports and outcomes
Our annual reviews provide a summary of the function, activity and performance of our service. You can download our annual review for 2018/19 and view our previous reports below.
- NICPM Annual Review 2021-22
- NICPM annual review 2020-21
- NICPM annual review 2019-20
- NICPM annual review 2017-18
- YCPM 2016-17 annual report
- YCPM 2015-16 annual report
- YCPM 2014-15 annual report
- YCPM 2013-14 annual report
- YCPM 2012-13 annual report
- YCPM 2011-12 annual report
- YCPM 2010-11 annual report
- YCPM 2009-10 annual report
Get in touch
The NICPM is based in the Brotherton Wing of Leeds General Infirmary.
You can contact us by calling 0113 392 7140 or you can email nicpm.lypft@nhs.net