About
Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf joined Priory in March 2024 as a medical director and consultant adult psychiatrist for Priory Hospital Woking. Here, he works with highly skilled nurses and therapists to deliver care to young people who have significant mental health issues that require an inpatient stay and outpatient support.
Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf has a wide range of clinical, leadership and managerial experience in treating serious and complex mental health conditions, that require inpatient admission for further assessment and treatment. Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf also has an outpatient clinic at Priory Hospital Woking, where he works alongside qualified therapists within Priory, to deliver personalised care to adult patients.
Dr Abu-Sayf is unable to accept referrals if there’s a risk that cannot be safely managed or if the needs of the patient/family cannot be met in the private outpatient setting. This may be the case if the person is presenting with potential risk of harm to self or others, or a degree of complexity that may require more urgent or intensive intervention and a multidisciplinary team approach to treatment. It’s important that all available and relevant information is provided in the referral so that a decision can be made before an assessment is offered. This is to avoid the person and their family requiring signposting via the GP to another service. All initial assessments take place in-person, or online if the patient requires that. Dr Abu-Sayf can offer in-person and online appointments for any follow-up sessions, if required.
Position at Priory
Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf now provides medical management for Priory Hospital Woking and Life Works, another one of Priory’s private treatment centres for addictions and eating disorders. Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf provides medical management for 13 visiting consultant psychiatrists at Priory Hospital Woking, and 5 visiting consultant psychiatrists at Life Works.
Training
Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf completed his medical training at the University of Damascus, Syria, in 1998. He started psychiatric training in the UK in 2004 and worked as a specialty doctor at KMPT NHS Trust between 2005 and 2011, where he gained extensive clinical experience in the acute service line for adult psychiatry, community service line for adult psychiatry, prison in-reach services for adult and forensic psychiatry, liaison psychiatry, old age psychiatry, and learning disability neuropsychiatry. Dr Abu-Sayf followed the CESR route with the GMC and the Royal College of Psychiatrists and has been on the General Medical Council (GMC) specialist register since June 2014 as a consultant psychiatrist in general adult psychiatry. Dr Abu-Sayf also worked with Cygnet Private Healthcare Group between August 2022 and February 2024, where he gained a high level of experience as a consultant psychiatrist in the private sector in general adult psychiatry, learning disability, and PICU (Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit). Other training includes:
- Approved Clinician and Section 12 doctor within the Mental Health Act (1983)
- Leadership and management training for medical directors, Cygnet Health Care, June 2022.
Research Interests
In 2019, Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf was also been appointed as a principle investigator for research at KMPT in liaison with Oxford University on the prevalence of neuronal cell surface antibodies in patients with psychotic illness, to facilitate recruitment for this study from KMPT.
Dr Fareed Abu-Sayf is also a supervisor for a lead pharmacist at KMPT for a research project on clozapine.
Languages
- English
- Arabic