Abstract
Aims and methodIn April 2007, the National Specialist Commissioning Team of the Department of Health commissioned a group of services to provide treatment to patients with the most severe and profound obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). We decided to examine the usage of these services across England 4–5 years after the start of the new funding arrangements. This survey used data about patients treated in the financial year 2011–2012.ResultsDespite the services offering intensive home-based as well as residential and in-patient services, there was a greater proportion of referrals from London, the South East of England and counties closer to London.Clinical implicationsIt is important that all patients, regardless of where they live, have access to highly specialist services for OCD and BDD. We discuss potential ways of improving this access but we hope this paper will act as a discussion forum whereby we can receive feedback from others.
Highlights
From 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012, 191 patients were referred to the National Specialist Commissioning Team (NSCT) service for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)
Overall we demonstrated that there was a significant geographical variation in patients referred to a specialised OCD/BDD service for those individuals with severe, treatment-refractory OCD and BDD
This could either be because of there being fewer patients requiring this level of intervention outside the South East of England or due to lack of knowledge of the services or an unwillingness to refer patients far from home
Summary
From 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012, 191 patients were referred to the NSCT service for OCD and BDD. As there is a slight variation in the population in each of the ten regions, a more accurate picture was obtained by dividing the number of referrals from each region by the total population in the area to produce the referral rate This was multiplied by 106 (Fig. 3). Home-based therapy is not related to distance from London (chi-squared test, P = 0.3220), there remains an overall lack of referrals from the North of England. For all patients treated by the service as out-patients or by home-based treatment, the average number of hours (excluding assessment) is 17.7 h per patient It was found that patients further from London were likely to receive as many hours of treatment as patients from nearer to London (chi-squared test, not significant)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
