A standard liaison psychiatry service structure

Abstract

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.