Mental Health & Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census, 2014 - Patients Treated Outwith NHS Scotland

Executive Summary

This report presents additional analysis on the first Mental Health & Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census. Whilst the initial publication^[1] focused on the 3,909 mental health, learning disability and addiction inpatients being treated in NHS Scotland facilities at the census date (midnight at the end of 29^th October 2014), this report focuses on those patients whose treatment is funded by NHS Boards in Scotland, but who were being treated in a facility outwith NHS Scotland (e.g. in a local authority care home, in a private hospital, in a NHS England facility) at the census date.

At the October census, there were 143 mental health, learning disability and addiction inpatients who were funded by NHS Boards in Scotland, but treated outwith NHS Scotland. Of these, 96 were treated in a non-NHS facility in Scotland, while 47 were treated in England (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Mental Health & Learning Disability patients funded by, but treated outwith, NHS Scotland

The average (median) number of days for the 143 patients treated outwith NHS Scotland was 2 years and 5 months - this is more than five times longer than that of those patients treated within NHS Scotland facilities.

31 out of the 143 patients had a diagnosis, either primary or secondary, for a Learning Disability (22% of all patients). This was the most prevalent condition amongst the 143 patients; 26 patients had a Personality Disorder, 25 had Schizophrenia and 21 had Dementia.