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Psychiatric out-patient non-attenders: a cause for relief or concern?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Marcellino Smyth
Affiliation:
John Conolly Hospital, Rubery, Birmingham B45 9BD (correspondence)
Panos Vostanis
Affiliation:
Charles Burns Clinic, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8QD
Christine Dean
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham B15 2TH
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In daily clinical practice, out-patient non-attendances are, unfortunately, regular occurrences. With the current trend towards community based care, out-patient facilities have become increasingly important, and the failure of patients to attend is both disruptive and worrying for professionals in this area. It is difficult to predict which of the non-attenders will progress to join the ranks of those “lost to follow-up”. This study was conceived in an attempt to clarify this question, in the setting of adult general psychiatric out-patient services.

Type
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

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