?About 36 out patients and about ten in-patients.?

?Community Mental Health Services (acute care clinics): On average, 50 to 60 follow up patients are seen every week and about ten to 12 new patients are seen either as out- or in-patients.

?The acute care ward (Somers Ward, voluntary admissions unit) has 19 beds and the Somers Annex (the intensive care unit), which houses involuntary patients admitted under the Mental Health Act, has six beds.

?At Turning Point, we have an eight-bed inpatient detoxification unit and we run three outpatient psychiatry clinics a week. Counsellors see patients throughout the week. These include scheduled appointments and drop in consultations. The consultant psychiatrist and the registrar see about 24 patients and the counsellors see about 150 patients every week. We average about 20 new intakes every week.?

?Somers Ward has 20 beds, Somers Annex six beds, Devon Lodge 17 beds (medium/long stay unit ), Reid Ward 24 beds (psych-geriatric patients, long stay facility); Coral House 14 beds (learning disabled ? long stay high dependency unit), Sand Piper ten beds (learning disabled, long stay high dependency unit).

There are also eight inpatient detox beds (drug withdrawal unit).

?In addition to the above, we have ten group homes in the learning disability programme and 15 group homes in the mental health programme. About 80 clients live in group homes and lead lives within the community. We started establishing these group homes about 30 years ago and they have grown to include around 80 clients at present.?

?On average, we have about ten to 12 voluntary patients and about three to four involuntary patients on any given day. The voluntary unit has at present 12 patients and the seclusion unit has three patients.

?Almost all the beds in the long stay units are occupied. We average about five patients in the drug withdrawal unit. At the moment, all beds in IDU are occupied and we have a waiting list for admission.

Are there any patients you cannot treat?

?No, as in other areas of medicine all patients can be treated. It might be relevant to remind ourselves of a famous medical quote ?In medicine we rarely cure, relive sometime, but need to comfort always?.