'Not waving but drowning': psychiatric inpatient services in East Lambeth 1990.

This paper presents the results of the latest in a series of surveys of an inner-city public psychiatric inpatient service. Severe pressures on the service had led to the purchase of inpatient beds in the private hospital sector and intensive care facilities in a large psychiatric hospital. On a census day the nominal occupancy for the inpatient unit was 117%. Implications of the survey, trends over time and possible solutions to the difficulties of the inpatient unit are discussed.