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A standard liaison psychiatry service structure?

A study of the liaison psychiatry services within six strategic health authorities

Leeds Mental Health Trust, Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, 15 Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 9JT.

Allan House, Professor of Liaison Psychiatry

Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University of Leeds

Declaration of interest

None.

Correspondence: E-mail: r.a.ruddy{at}leeds.ac.uk

AIMS AND METHOD

We surveyed all psychiatric services in the six northeast strategic health authorities to determine how the provision of liaison psychiatry services related to College recommendations and the size of the general hospital trusts served.

RESULTS

Thirty-six (100%) services provided usable data, 8% of general hospital trusts had no liaison psychiatry service, 41% of teams were not multidisciplinary with their only staff being nurses, only 38% of services had dedicated consultant psychiatry time and only a quarter met the recommended minimum standard of 0.5 whole-time equivalents. No teams contained clinical psychologists. Disorder-specific out-patient clinic provision was idiosyncratic.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

There is a lack of rational planning of liaison psychiatry services and as a result, many services are not needs-based and do not comply with College recommendations. One indication of this is the lack of multidisciplinary teams.

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