Consultation-liaison service in a regional hospital in Hong Kong

To examine consultation-liaison psychiatric services in a general hospital in Hong Kong.

All records of Tseung Kwan O Hospital psychiatric consultations from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013 were extracted from the database. Patients' demographic data, sources and reasons of referral, psychiatric and suicidal histories, current suicidal attempt, psychiatric diagnoses, psychiatric outcomes, as well as waiting times were analysed accordingly.

A total of 1392 psychiatric consultations were received, of which 82% were attended to within the same working day when the referral was received, and 99% were attended to by the end of the next working day. The commonest reasons of consultation were unstable emotion followed by suicidal / deliberate self-harm and aggression. There were 246 consultations with actual suicidal attempt. Overall, 270 (19%) patients who received consultation-liaison psychiatric services were admitted to the psychiatric wards. Follow-up in the psychiatric outpatient department was arranged for 691 (50%) patients while 57 (4%) required referral to the community psychiatric nursing service in addition to outpatient department arrangement.

Management of suicidal attempters and provision of risk assessment continue to be the major tasks of consultation-liaison psychiatrists and nurses. A readily available on-site consultation-liaison psychiatric service is an essential component of services provided in acute general hospitals.