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Is readmission a failure?

Stephen Brewster (Ashworth Hospital, Mersey Care NHS Trust)

The British Journal of Forensic Practice

ISSN: 1463-6646

Article publication date: 1 August 2003

91

Abstract

How should we judge a readmission to high secure psychiatric services? A case‐by‐case view is insufficient to make sense of potential service deficiencies. People in high secure psychiatric settings more often than not test our services and cause considerable alarm. The local clinical response is to seek to improve the condition, and they enter the high secure service. The political, legal and clinical imperatives ensure that patients return just as soon as they are ‘fit’. This paper details the career paths of 11 ‘readmissions’ to Ashworth Hospital, now part of Mersey Care NHS Trust, and suggests that it is more a question of tackling gaps in our combined services than of ascribing individual failings.

Citation

Brewster, S. (2003), "Is readmission a failure?", The British Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 33-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636646200300019

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited

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