10 - Achieving optimal treatment organisation in different countries

Summary

This chapter provides important information for those preparing a case of need for local healthcare planners. The first step in making the case of need depends on understanding the local and national context in which the failure of current service provision occurs. General practitioners (GPs) seem to be the group of doctors who are most concerned with the unmet need of this group of patients, presumably because they have sometimes to manage even severe disorders without any appropriate support from secondary care. There are several major building blocks to developing a service for patients with bodily distress syndromes. In the UK, an attempt has recently been made to develop a total systems approach to improve the care of patients with medically unexplained symptoms. The service development in Plymouth has emphasised some of the important ingredients of successful integration of general medical and psychiatric services.