Postgraduate medical journal
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Multicenter Study
General hospital services for deliberate self-poisoning: an expensive road to nowhere?
This study was designed to investigate the clinical and economic aspects of deliberate self-poisoning services in four teaching hospitals in Leeds, Leicester, Manchester and Nottingham. We investigated the management of the current self-harm episode, including direct in-hospital costs, in 456 individuals who presented to hospital on a total of 477 occasions with deliberate self-poisoning during a 4-week period in 1996. Fewer than half of the patients received specialist psychosocial assessment or follow-up. ⋯ In-patient days and days on the intensive care unit accounted for 47% and 8% of the total costs, respectively. This study suggests that general hospital services are disorganised, with evidence of inequitable access to specialist assessment and after-care. This state of affairs cannot be justified on financial or clinical grounds.