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Fund-holding general practices and old age psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Christopher F. Fear
Affiliation:
Academic Subdepartment of Psychological Medicine, North Wales Hospital, Denbigh, Clwyd LL16 5SS
Howard R. Cattell
Affiliation:
Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Ysbyty Maelor, Croesnewydd Road, Wrexham, Clwyd LL13 7TD
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Abstract

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In a retrospective study, referrals to a community old age psychiatry service were obtained for local practices a year before and a year subsequent to the introduction of prospective general practitioner (GP) fund-holding. Although overall patterns of referral were the same, there was a significant reduction in domiciliary consultations requested by fund-holding GPs which was not balanced by a rise in other referrals. The findings suggest a shortfall in the number of referrals to old age psychiatry services in the light of GP fund-holding, prompting speculation as to the fate of those who would otherwise have been referred.

Type
Original papers
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, 1994

References

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