Ward round practice – a need for urgent attention?

I read with interest and surprise the paper ‘A survey of ward round practice’ by Hodgson et al (Psychiatric Bulletin, May 2005, 29, 171-173). This paper greatly disappointed me in that standard practice in the West Midlands indicates that ward rounds are being run for the professionals rather than for patients. I wonder how the professionals surveyed would feel if they were interviewed by the consultant psychiatrist in front of a room full of strangers at a time when they were acutely ill and vulnerable. I have vowed never to subject patients to this practice.

A brief survey of the adult mental health teams working in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire who admit patients to the acute wards at Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen found that none of the 15 teams carry out ward rounds in the way suggested in the paper. The teams discuss detailed care plans for the next week at the weekly team meeting involving ward-based staff. Any interviews between patients and professionals are carried out separately and in privacy as patients have consistently indicated to us that this is their preferred model for in-patient assessment.

I am also surprised by the findings that no pharmacists attend the ward rounds of 96 consultants, since I and my colleagues clearly showed the benefits of pharmaceutical input to mental health teams as long ago as 1996 (Kettle et al, 1996). Within the service for which I am responsible, pharmacy staff are regarded as core and essential members of mental health teams and in our experience make an invaluable contribution to team meetings.