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Availability of patient records and psychiatric admission rate

NHS Lanarkshire, Airbles Road Centre, 49 Airbles Road, Motherwell ML1 2TP, email: polash.shajahan1{at}lanpct.scot.nhs.uk

Timothy Agnew, Senior House Officer in Psychiatry

NHS Lanarkshire, Airbles Road Centre, Motherwell

Declaration of interest

None.

AIMS AND METHOD

Trainee psychiatrists often perform emergency mental health assessments. Traditionally, it has been considered that having access to past psychiatric records will reduce the likelihood of a psychiatricatient being admitted. We examined whether the availability of records had an influence on admission by recording all contacts to the duty junior psychiatrist in two district general hospitals over a 6-month period.

RESULTS

For those with chronic or enduring mental illnesses there is a 27% increase in the likelihood of admission if past records are available. For all other patients the increase is 10%.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Contrary to our expectations, the availability of records increases the likelihood of admission to mental health admission units.