Liaison psychiatry in Addenbrooke's Hospital: six months experience

Addenbrooke's Hospital is large (approximately 1,000 beds) and serves the functions of an academic and teaching centre, as well as providing acute care in medicine, surgery and the specialties for the inhabitants of Cambridge and the surrounding area. Before January 1989, all psychiatric beds were located at Fulbourn Hospital, three miles from the main Addenbrooke's site and all liaison psychiatric cover was provided by links between individual medical and psychiatric teams. However, since that date, a small in-patient psychiatric unit has been established on the Addenbrooke's site and at the same time, in order to gain closer compliance with the Royal College Guidelines (1988), arrangements were made for one of the registrar posts associated with this unit to form part of a liaison psychiatry team.