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Attendance at psychiatric clinics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Joseph El-Khoury
Affiliation:
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford Specialist Community Addiction Service, the Rectory Centre, Rectory Road, Oxford OX4 1BU, email: Josephelkhoury@doctors.org.uk
Samantha Bennett
Affiliation:
South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust, Adamson Centre, St Thomas' Hospital
Helen Johnston
Affiliation:
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust
Sarah White
Affiliation:
Division of Mental Health, St George's, University of London
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Abstract

Type
The columns
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, 2008

We conducted a 1-year retrospective study of attendance at a general National Health Service psychiatric clinic in London between 2005 and 2006. We aimed to compare attendance rates between grades of doctors and identify demographic and organisational factors affecting attendance. Previous publications on the subject had identified relatively poor attendance in psychiatric clinics compared with other medical specialties (Reference KillaspyKillaspy, 2006) and variation between different grades (Reference McIvor, Ek and CarsonMcIvor et al, 2004). Little improvement had been noticed between 1969 (Nehama) and 2004 (McIvor et al), taking into account the variation in settings and significant changes to the structure of mental healthcare in the UK. In our study, we looked at the clinics covered by 13 doctors with various degrees of seniority and experience. Appointments were set for 30 min on average at a community hospital in a suburban area with good transport links. The overall attendance rate was 72.4%, ranging between 79.1% for consultant psychiatrists and 63.8% for associate specialists, with intermediate figures for specialist registrars (72.3%) and senior house officers (66.3%). We also found significantly better attendance for morning clinics and on Wednesdays. There was no significant difference between male and female service users or between new and follow-up appointments. Most missed appointments were an isolated event but a small number of service users (n=61) were responsible for 38% of overall non-attendance, having missed between 3 and 12 appointments in that year.

References

Killaspy, H. (2006) Psychiatric out-patient services: origins and future. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 12, 309319.Google Scholar
McIvor, R., Ek, E. & Carson, J. (2004) Non-attendance rates among patients attending different grades of psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist within a community mental health clinic. Psychiatric Bulletin, 28, 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nehama, V. S. (1969) Non-attendance at a psychiatric follow-up clinic. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 475476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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