[Use and costs of psycho-oncological liaison services]

The extent to which patients took advantage of psychosocial consultation services in two clinics for internal and oncological disorders was documented over a period of four and a half years to establish, for the sake of future planning, whether there was a demand for psychosocial intervention. During the first year of treatment, consultations between a member of the psychosocial staff and any one patient averaged a total of 13 hours (2 sessions a week, each lasting 28 mins). The number of sessions depended most of all on objectifiable stress factors related to the course of disease or treatment. From records of both directly patient-oriented and team-oriented staff activities, we calculated the staffing requirements and costs of offering a psychosomatic consultation service within the framework of intensive internal-oncological medical care.