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General Practice Psychiatric Clinics

Impact on Psychiatric Services

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Peter Tyrer ,
Nicholas Seivewright  and
Stanley Wollerton
Peter Tyrer*
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Porchester Road, Nottingham NG3 6AA
Nicholas Seivewright
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Porchester Road, Nottingham NG3 6AA
Stanley Wollerton
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Porchester Road, Nottingham NG3 6AA
*
∗Correspondence
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Summary

The impact of devolving out-patient care to general practice (GP) psychiatric clinics over a two-year period is examined by comparing the frequency of contact with different psychiatric services in practices with and without psychiatric clinics. The clinics led to an increase in the number of outpatients seen, but to a fall in the number of new referrals. There was also a relative increase in the number of domiciliary visits and increase in acute day hospital referrals. The most important result was a 20 per cent fall in the number of admissions to the psychiatric hospital, which took place at a time when the national trend of falling admission rates was reversed. The findings suggest that psychiatric resources for in-patients can be deployed successfully in primary care without any increase in staffing.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 1 , July 1984 , pp. 15 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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