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How should a mental health liaison team communicate with general practitioners?

Mental Health Liaison Team, Waterlow Unit, Camden & Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust, Highgate Hill, London N19 5NX

The Islington Mental Health Liaison Team provides an acute psychiatric assessment service for patients attending the Whittington Hospital, North London. Many patients are discharged back to their general practitioner (GP), however there have been no studies investigating the communication from liaison psychiatric teams to GPs. Therefore, the liaison team conducted a survey to discover how Islington GPs would like information relayed to them. Currently, we send letters that are 2-3-sides long via the hospital postal system.

One hundred and fourteen Islington GPs were sent a dated letter, a one-sided questionnaire and copies of four different types of assessment letter. Of the 59 (52%, which is comparable with other postal surveys) GPs who responded, 95% requested same-day feedback of the assessment and 85% thought that a faxed one-page structured form most suitable for this; 92% indicated that they would prefer a full letter at a later date; and 83% indicated that they would prefer the mental health liaison team to prescribe initially if a change of psychotropic medication was indicated.

It was clear from these results that we were not matching GPs' expectations because 50% of our letters took more than 3 days to arrive. The findings were consistent with similar surveys about GP communication (Essex, 1991; Smith & Trotter, 1992; Walker et al, 1998). As a consequence the liaison team are now faxing one-page structured forms on the same day as the assessment and providing fuller letters if requested, or felt appropriate by senior staff.

References

ESSEX, B. (1991) The psychiatric discharge summary: a tool for management and audit. British Journal of General Practice, 41, 332-334.

SMITH, S. & TROTTER, C. (1992) A new discharge summary. Psychiatric Bulletin, 16, 607-608.[Free Full Text]

WALKER, S. A., BOENLHOFF, G. A. & EAGLES, J. M. (1998) Early discharge summaries. Psychiatric Bulletin, 22, 148-149.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

This Article Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Cotton, M.-A. Articles by Ellis, D. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Cotton, M.-A. Articles by Ellis, D.