Chamber and committees

Children and young people referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) will generally be treated in the community. There may be times when it is necessary to admit them to hospital for specialist mental health treatment; should this be the case they would be admitted to one of the three regional CAMHS inpatient units, or the national unit for under 12s.

Requests may come from outwith the region because, while the three units work on a regional basis, each unit will also consider requests from the other regions. Children and young people may initially be admitted to one unit and then transferred to another; they may also be admitted to a non-NHS facility or a non-specialist NHS facility and then transfer to Dudhope, or be discharged to the community, or complete their treatment in that facility. Reasons for this may include bed availability, a clinical decision, or the preference of a young person and their family.

Over the period May 2015 to May 2016, there were 21 occasions when a young person could not be admitted to Dudhope young persons unit (YPU) due to the unavailability of a bed. On two occasions the request was for a bed for a young person who resided outside the north of Scotland region, whilst the remaining 19 occasions were requests to admit young people residing in the north of Scotland region.

The reason for beds being unavailable is either due to the unit being at full capacity (no physical beds available) or high patient dependency, making it clinically unsafe to admit any further patients.

Table 1 shows where patients were admitted to on the 19 occasions when a bed was not available at Dudhope young persons unit.

Table 1 – North of Scotland admissions to other YPU or adult facilities (May 2015 – May 2016)

NB. NHS Tayside are unable to advise what happened on the two occasions that a bed was requested from outwith the north of Scotland region.