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Working for psychiatric patients?

Mental health services and the White Paper

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Edward Peck*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle
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Working for Patients and the subsequent Working Papers mention psychiatric services explicitly only twice. The proposals have been formulated for patients requiring tests and treatment for elective surgical conditions. They are the conditions which are believed to be predictable and therefore the most receptive to contractual specification and pricing. The health care contract is to be central to the new NHS. It is the device by which the Department of Health hopes to produce a fundamental change in attitude by both doctors and managers. Kenneth Clarke seems much more concerned with this attitudinal shift than with the detail of what the NHS might resemble a decade from now. This omission of overt consideration of psychiatric services does not allow us to ignore the White Paper. I intend to focus on the potential implications of the proposed themes for psychiatric services, particularly in the context of what they might indicate about the Government response to Community Care: Agenda for Action.

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Articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989

References

Brandon, D. & Towe, N. (1989) Free to Choose. London: Good Impressions.Google Scholar
Challis, B. & Davies, B. (1986) Case Management in Community Care. London: Gower.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1989) Working for Patients. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1989) Working Papers 1–8. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Griffiths, R. (1986) Community Care: An Agenda for Action. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Macpherson, G. (1989) BMA's measured response. British Medical Journal, 298, 340341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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