HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS British Journal of Psychiatry Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Riordan, D. V. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Riordan, D. V.

Do we really need a duty consultant?

New Craigs Hospital, Inverness IV3 8NP

Do consultant psychiatrists really need to provide a conventional out of hours service? How often does a clinical insight, resulting from a face-to-face, out-of-hours interview with the duty consultant psychiatrist, genuinely contribute to the management of a situation, in a way that could not have waited until the following day? Between 17.00 h and 09.00 h, could it not be replaced by telephone advice? A single consultant (working a reasonable shift of say 8 h) could provide advice to junior doctors, and others, for a large catchment of several million people, with a local consultant still available to review patients between 09.00 h and 17.00 h on weekends and public holidays.

There are two strong arguments for making such a change. First, the effort and expenditure invested by the National Health Service in ensuring the physical presence of a consultant psychiatrist at all times could be better spent on other service developments. Second, recruitment and retention are major challenges for the psychiatric profession (Storer, 2002) and we compete with other specialties for recruits. A significant attraction of psychiatry has traditionally been its ‘family friendly’ image (Eagles, 1996). The new general practitioner (GP) contract, with GPs no longer obliged to work out of hours, is likely to have significant effects on recruitment and retention in psychiatry. Psychiatry competes with general practice for recruits, and general practice has become much more attractive.

References

EAGLES, J. M. (1996) Gender differences in attitudes and recruitment into psychiatry. Psychological Reports, 78, 653 –654.[Medline]

STORER, D. (2002) Recruiting and retaining psychiatrists. British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 296 –297.[Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Riordan, D. V. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Riordan, D. V.