Establishing a District Psychiatric Service without Psychiatric Trainees

Abstract

The Report of the Social Services Committee of the House of Commons in 1981 (the ‘Short Report’) recommended the establishment of consultant posts without the support of trainee medical staff as part of a strategy to correct the situation where too many doctors occupied training posts for the number of consultant posts available. 1 The Royal College of Psychiatrists has endorsed this policy, 2 and the withdrawal of approval for training from an increasing number of hospitals around the country is leading rapidly to a situation where a large number of them need to look at alternative arrangements for providing medical cover. We would like to report the establishment and early development of such an arrangement based in a district general hospital.