Polyclinics and psychiatry: risks and opportunities

Abstract

SummaryThe arrival of the ‘polyclinic’ or ‘GP-led health centre’ has been signalled in the review of the National Health Service. A variety of options have been proposed for the way in which polyclinics will incorporate specialist services to work alongside primary care, and the relevance of these models to mental healthcare is considered. Polyclinics provide new opportunities but with those possibilities come potential threats and risks. Of key importance is the threat that they will re-institutionalise mental healthcare after many years of breaking down such barriers. Buildings provide shared space, but new working practices are more difficult to achieve.