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Urgent psychiatric assessment in an inner-city A&E department

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Michael J. Crawford  and
Dora Kohen
Michael J. Crawford
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AZ
Dora Kohen*
Affiliation:
Homerton Hospital, Homerton Row, London E9 6SR
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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Data on day time referrals to a liaison psychiatry team from an inner London accident and emergency department (A&E) were analysed over a two-year period. Despite the availability of local community-based alternatives for urgent assessment almost 5000 patients were seen. A quarter were self-referrals and two-thirds had had no previous contact with psychiatric services. The most common reason for referral was aggressive or disruptive behaviour. Characteristics of patients in this inner-city population suggest a continuing need for a high quality liaison service to the A&E department.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 21 , Issue 10 , October 1997 , pp. 625 - 626
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 © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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