The effects of establishing a psychiatric consultation-liaison service: changes in patterns of referral and care.

The establishment of a psychiatric consultation-liaison service in Nottingham more than trebled referrals from general hospital wards and the accident and emergency (A&E) department over a period of 4 years--without an equivalent rise in total admissions. Most patients were suffering from a mental disorder, 43% having an organic or functional psychosis; 86% were making their first psychiatric contact and 29% of recontacts had only been seen previously at a District General Hospital (DGH).