oa Co-ordination between emergency physicians and psychiatric liaison service is a must for a safe and good quality care

Background: 75% of mental health illnesses and problems are treated in local communities in United Kingdom. There is a well-structured community service with a personal holistic management of these psychiatric problems patients and the arrangements are done according to needs and environment of the patient. However these services are not round the clock and they do not have an access to the acute psychiatric beds or any input for other medical problems. This is covered by Emergency Department of the country which has a 24 hours open access 7 days a week throughout the year. These patients are seen by Emergency Department clinicians and then managed in coordination with the psychiatric liaison nurses and on call psychiatric team.

Methods: We looked retrospectively to our practice in our two different trusts to see the actual increase in number of attending psychiatric patients in our emergency departments and the effect of these attendance and other related changes. Patients re-attending (Unplanned) in 72 hours are calculated separately.

Results: There is an increase of patients attending ED year after year with an average of 7.6% yearly increase. Over the last 5 years the overall increase of patient referral to PLS is 38.3%. Peak referral time is 0800—1000 and 1400–1500. 100% of ED doctors were aware of pathway for referral to PLS and could easily find it. All doctors were aware of the PLS point of contact and phone number. 90% of our ED doctors were happy with the initial management of these patients. 60% of junior and middle grade doctors have attended some kind of mental health teaching. 15% of these doctors were happy to discharge themselves the patient with low score (SAD PERSON Score).

Conclusions: Emergency physicians in collaboration with Psychiatric liaison service serve patients with mental health problems safe and effectively.