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A Comparison of Referrals to Primary-Care and Hospital Out-patient Clinics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. M. A. Brown ,
G. Strathdee ,
J. R. W. Christie-Brown  and
P. H. Robinson
R. M. A. Brown
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Child Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry
G. Strathdee*
Affiliation:
General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry
J. R. W. Christie-Brown
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital
P. H. Robinson
Affiliation:
Kings College Hospital
*
∗General Practice Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

All referrals from two general practices to psychiatrists in hospital and primary-care out-patient clinics were examined. Women in all diagnostic groups were preferentially referred to the primary-care clinics, which provided especially for psychotic and chronic illnesses, and at which attendance rates on first and subsequent appointments were substantially higher than at the hospital clinics. The hospital crisis-intervention clinic dealt particularly with acute psychosis and personality disorder. Patients referred to the traditional hospital out-patient service were those with the less common neuroses and personality disorder. These results are reviewed in the context of the criticism that psychiatric clinics in primary care serve only the “worried well”.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 2 , August 1988 , pp. 168 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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