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Patients repeatedly admitted to psychiatric wards: a four-year follow-up

Towers Hospital, Leicester

Simon Payne, Consultant Rehabilitation Psychiatrist^*

Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham

^* Correspondence

Previous studies have looked at repeated admissions and failed discharges but none have followed up a group of patients requiring multiple admissions over several years. We found that of the 42 patients admitted three or more times to acute wards in 1990, half were having a bad year and did not require this level of inpatient care in succeeding years; one-quarter continued to use acute services heavily but none required three or more admissions in every year of follow-up; one-quarter did badly and required prolonged in-patient care or died.