Specialist outreach clinics in general practice

Abstract

Objectives-To establish the extent and nature of specialist outreach clinics in primary care Main outcome measures-Number of specialist outreach clinics; organisation and referral mechanism; waiting times; perceived benefits and problems.Result&-28 of the hospitals had a total of 96 outreach clinics, and 32 fundholders identified a further 61 clinics. These clinics covered psychiatry (43), medical specialties (38), and surgical specialties (76). Patients were seen by the consultant in 96% (107) of clinics and general practitioners attended at only six clinics. 61 outreach clinics had shorter waiting times for first outpatient appointment than hospital clinics. The most commonly reported benefits for patients were ease of access and shorter waiting times.Conclusions-Specialist outreach clinics cover a wide range of specialties and are popular, especially in fundholding practices. These clinics do not seem to have increased the interaction between general practitioners and specialists.

Referrals of women with a family history of breast cancer from primary care to cancer genetics services in South East Scotland

“…Specialist outreach clinics in general practice increased throughout the mid-1990s, reflecting a desire within the National Health Service to move towards closer integration of primary and secondary care services (Bailey et al, 1994). Within clinical genetics, it is recognised that this has the potential to lead to improved equity of access to high-quality regional services (Donnai and Elles, 2001), although this has not been formally evaluated.…”

“…This was reinforced by the written comments of a number of GPs on the survey questionnaire that they had made little use of the service (the average referral rate was 0.5 referrals per GP per year). It has been noted previously that the limited interaction between primary care and specialist staff jeopardises achievement of one of the central aims of these initiatives -to facilitate integration and overcome barriers between primary and secondary/tertiary care (Bailey et al, 1994).…”

Mental Health Services for California Native Americans — Usual Service Options and a Description of Telepsychiatric Consultation to Select Sites

“…In Great Britain, the majority of psychiatrists function in the traditional referral model (Strathdee 1987). The majority of PCPs, though, favored the collaborative care model, as having the psychiatrist located in the primary care clinic setting versus an offsite mental health clinic greatly improved the consultation process (Katon et al 1995;Bailey et al 1994). Such research shows that those PCPs patients are more likely to receive adequate doses of antidepressants and recover from depression (Simon et al 2000).…”

Psychiatric outreach clinics held in a general practice setting and community mental health centre

“…More generally, the provision of specialist out-patient services in primary care has been increasing (Bailey et al 1994). In particular, with the development of community psychiatric services, general practice based psychiatric clinics have increased in number in recent years (Strathdee et al 1990) with more psychiatrists running liaisonconsultation clinics in general practice (Pullen & Yellowlees, 1988).…”

“…It has been suggested that outreach clinics in primary care require evaluation with their acceptability to patients as one factor which could be examined (Bailey et al 1994). Thus far, there has been no research into attendance at such clinics nor whether patient views reflect attendance figures.…”