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The purpose of this paper is to compare data from national censuses on specialist inpatient service use by people with learning disabilities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

National statistics (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) reporting inpatient service censuses including people with learning disabilities were accessed, with data extracted on trends over time, rate of service use, young people and length of stay.

The number and rate of people with learning disabilities in specialist inpatient services varied across the UK: 230 people in Scotland (rate 4.88 per 100,000 population); 3,250 people in England (5.48); 183 people in Wales (5.90); 144 people in Northern Ireland (7.82). The number of people in inpatient services in Northern Ireland halved over four years, in other areas reductions were modest. Between 5 and 8 per cent of people in inpatient services were children/young people. Median length of stay in the person’s current inpatient service varied: 19 months in England; 33 months in Scotland; three to five years in Northern Ireland.

Different parts of the UK vary in the scale of their specialist inpatient services for people with learning disabilities. With the exception of Northern Ireland, which may still be in the last stages of completing a “regular” deinstitutionalisation programme, strong policy prescriptions for substantial reductions in specialist inpatient services are currently only resulting in modest reductions.

This paper is a first attempt to compare national inpatient service statistics across the UK. With increasing divergence of health and social service systems, further comparative analyses of services for people with learning disabilities are needed.

This position paper focuses on the current tensions and challenges of aligning inpatient care with innovations in mental health services. It argues that a cultural shift is required within inpatient services. Obstacles to change including traditional perceptions of the role and responsibilities of the psychiatrist are discussed. The paper urges all staff working in acute care to reflect on the service that they provide, and to consider how the adoption of new ways of working might revolutionise the organisational culture. This cultural shift offers inpatient staff the opportunity to fully utilise their expertise. New ways of working may be perceived as a threat to existing roles and responsibilities or as an exciting opportunity for professional development with increased job satisfaction. Above all, the move to new ways of working, which is gathering pace throughout the UK, could offer service users1 a quality of care that meets their needs and expectations.

The purpose of this study is to understand that how different demographic variables and repeated availing of service from the same doctor or same hospital shape the overall perception of health-care service quality and satisfaction among inpatients admitted in private hospitals in an emerging economy.

A self-administered, cross-sectional survey of inpatients using a questionnaire was translated into Hindi and Gujarati. The data were collected from 702 inpatients from 18 private clinics located in three selected cities from Western India.

The results indicate that experience with hospital administration, doctors, nursing staff, physical environment, hospital pharmacy and physical environment is significant predictor of inpatient satisfaction. Physical environment was found to be significantly associated with satisfaction only among female inpatient. It was also found that repeat availing of services either from the same hospital or doctor does not increase patient satisfaction. The feasibility, reliability and validity of the instrument that measures major technical and nontechnical dimensions of quality of health-care services were established in the context of a developing country.

The study makes important contribution by empirically investigating the inpatient assessment of health-care service quality based upon their demographic information and repeated availing of services to understand how repeat visit shapes the service quality perception.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which inpatient mental health services attend to the religious needs of service-users. Literature is presented to argue that whilst the importance of religion is highlighted in consumer accounts, research and policy; inpatient services continue to neglect religion and service-users consistently report insufficient attention to religious needs during hospitalisation.

This review adopts a narrative approach to the literature, drawing upon published journal articles, book chapters and policy documentation.

Literature into the topic area is reviewed and discussed within three themes. First, the extent to which religious needs are currently met is explored. Second, potential reasons for neglect of religion are considered. Finally, examples of religiously informed group programmes, individual psychotherapy and the use of traditional healers are detailed.

Findings of the review point towards the requirement for inpatient services to more adequately meet religious needs in terms of available facilities. The need for spiritual assessment and collaboration with hospital chaplains is also highlighted, along with the call for increased staff training.

It is expected that this review will be of interest to a range of stakeholders including professionals, policy makers and service users. It highlights the void in clinical attention to religious needs and offers practical suggestions for meeting this need.

Children and young people with an intellectual disability (referred to in this article as young people) have a higher incidence of mental illness and challenging behaviour than individuals without cognitive impairment. Inpatient assessment and treatment in a learning disability‐specific provision rather than mainstream inpatient child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) is most beneficial for those young people who experience a more severe intellectual disability or whose presenting complaint is challenging behaviour not associated with a co‐morbid mental illness. Assessment and treatment of this complex group of young people can only be successful if the services which manage them have access to a highly experienced and comprehensive multidisciplinary team. Admission is only worthwhile if recommendations that arise from the assessment can be transferred to the community and those involved in supporting the young person are motivated to work in collaboration with the inpatient team.

Secure inpatient services for people with intellectual disability are provided in a piecemeal way, often without strategic commissioning. We describe how we conducted a needs assessment that enabled us to develop a new service for men with intellectual disability who often had substantial additional mental health needs. Consulting with all stakeholders was essential, and we found the service user and family perspectives particularly helpful. We had to make special arguments for some aspects of the treatment programme. We found that foundation trusts that are able to develop services at financial risk, before contracts are signed, enabled development to take place at a faster pace. Good relationships with community teams have been essential, as has true integration with mainstream forensic services. Maintaining a relationship with commissioners was a particularly challenging aspect, perhaps because the development was provider‐led. Despite these challenges, many people with intellectual disability with very high needs are being supported much nearer to home.

Governments all over the world are getting increasingly concerned about their ability to meet their social obligations in the health sector. In this paper, we discuss the design and development of a management information system (MIS) to plan and monitor the delivery of healthcare services in government hospitals in India. Our MIS design is based on an understanding of the working of several municipal, district, and state government hospitals. In order to understand the magnitude and complexity of various issues faced by the government hospitals, we analyze the working of three large tertiary care hospitals administered by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. The hospital managers are very concerned about the lack of hospital infrastructure and resources to provide a satisfactory level of service. Equally concerned are the government administrators who have limited financial resources to offer healthcare services at subsidized rates. A comprehensive hospital MIS is thus necessary to plan and monitor the delivery of hospital services efficiently and effectively.

The purpose of this research is to develop and compare some determinants of service quality in both the public and private hospitals of Northern Cyprus. There is considerable lack of literature with respect to service quality in public and private hospitals.

Randomly, 454 respondents, who have recently benefited from hospital services in Famagusta, were selected to answer a modified version of the SERVQUAL Instrument. The instrument contained both service expectations and perceptions questions.

This study identifies six factors regarding the service quality as perceived in both public and private Northern Cyprus hospitals. These are: empathy, giving priority to the inpatients needs, relationships between staff and patients, professionalism of staff, food and the physical environment. Research results revealed that the various expectations of inpatients have not been met in either the public or the private hospitals

At the micro level, the lack of management commitment to service quality in both hospital settings leads doctors and nurses to expend less effort increasing or improving inpatient satisfaction. Hospital managers should also satisfy their employees, since job satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, hospital administrations need to gather systematic feedback from their inpatients, establish visible and transparent complaint procedures so that inpatients' complaints can be addressed effectively and efficiently.

The hospitals need to organize training sessions based on the critical importance of service quality and the crucial role of inpatient satisfaction in the health care industry. Future studies should include the remaining regions in Cyprus in order to increase research findings' generalizability. Additionally, including other dimensions such as hospital processes and discharge management and co‐ordination may provide further insights into understanding inpatients' perceptions and intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a professional consensus position with regard to the provision of specialist inpatient rehabilitation services for people with intellectual disability (ID), autism and mental health, behavioural or forensic needs in the UK.

The concept of rehabilitation is discussed, as well as the functions and goals of specialist inpatient rehabilitation services with regard to the aforementioned contexts. Current use of rehabilitation beds is considered, both on a regional and national scale, as well as various outcome measures, including effectiveness, patient safety and patient experience.

There is a clear need for specialist inpatient rehabilitation services, though historically there have been instances of inappropriate admissions, as well as lengthy inpatient stays that could have been significantly reduced with the right type of community support package. Such services should be subjected to rigorous measurement of outcome measures, to determine that patients within such services are receiving a consistently high standard of care. Additionally, amendments to current legal frameworks should be considered, with a view to accommodating for individuals with capacity who require continuous community-based supervision.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first article detailing a professional consensus position for specialist inpatient rehabilitation services for people with ID, autism and mental health, behavioural or forensic needs.