Why is this HEAT target important?
Health and social care services are working together to provide good quality support and care in the community. Reduced levels of readmissions to psychiatric hospitals is a key indicator that these services are being provided appropriately, both before leaving hospital, after the first admission, and subsequently in the community.
How are we performing?
Target due for delivery in December 2010
The target is to reduce by 10 per cent the number of patients who are readmitted to a psychiatric hospital (for a period of over 7 days) within one year of being discharged from a previous admission of over 7 days. The target period relates to patients discharged during the year ending December 2009. Thus readmissions up to the end of 2010 could be within a year of a discharge in the reporting period of 2009. Some NHS Boards have a target in place to deliver greater than or less than a 10 per cent reduction by December 2010 (for discharges in the year ending December 2009). This therefore means that the NHSScotland target is equivalent to a reduction of 13 per cent by this date (3,969 readmissions).
The number of readmissions has reduced steadily over the period covered by the chart, from 4,576 readmissions following discharges in the baseline year (year ending December 2004) to 3,426 readmissions following discharges in the year ending December 2009. This is a decrease of 25.1 per cent.
The graph below shows the number of psychiatric discharges that lead to a readmission within one year per annum, since the year ending December 2004.
Note: A national figure is currently not available for the year ending December 2008.
NHS Board level performance is shown in the table below.
Readmissions that occured within one year of an inpatient discharge, following a stay in a mental health hospital of over 7 days, by NHS Board, year ending December 2010 and NHS Board target
| NHS Board | Readmissions (year ending December 2010) | NHS Board target (due for delivery December 2010) |
|---|
| NHS AYRSHIRE & ARRAN | 255 | 282 |
| NHS BORDERS | 86 | 119 |
| NHS DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY | 99 | 106 |
| NHS FIFE | 181 | 276 |
| NHS FORTH VALLEY | 135 | 175 |
| NHS GRAMPIAN | 329 | 310 |
| NHS GREATER GLASGOW & CLYDE | 917 | 1,057 |
| NHS HIGHLAND | 193 | 289 |
| NHS LANARKSHIRE | 396 | 436 |
| NHS LOTHIAN | 508 | 628 |
| NHS ORKNEY | 3 | 6 |
| NHS SHETLAND | 1 | 5 |
| NHS TAYSIDE | 311 | 254 |
| NHS WESTERN ISLES | 12 | 26 |
| NHSSCOTLAND | 3,426 | 3,969 |
Note: The baseline is the number of patients discharged between January 2004 and December 2004 who were subsequently readmitted within 365 days. The target period is the number of patients discharged between January 2009 and December 2009 who were subsequently readmitted within 365 days.
Further Information
The Mental Health Collaborative supports NHS Boards to deliver on this target. Further information on the work is contained within their quarterly newsletters which can be accessed at:
Mental Health Collaborative newsletter
Psychiatric readmissions data by board is published at the following link. Data is included for all boards when estimated SMR04 completeness is 85 per cent or greater. For some boards this includes data up to the year ending March 2009.
Mental Health summary statisticss
Related National Outcomes