A Survey of Learning Disability Inpatient Services in Scotland.

A national review of learning disability services in Scotland, ‘The Same As You?’ recommended that Health Boards should close all long stay beds by 2005 and reduce assessment and treatment places to specified levels. A psychiatry-led service planning study was carried out in 2007 to find out whether these recommendations had been met. The extent of delayed discharges was also investigated. All 15 Health Board in Scotland responded and supplied the requested information. There were 388 adults with learning disabilities within in-patient services, 91 of whom were within forensic learning disability services. The age, gender, reasons for admission and length of stay are reported for this in-patient population. Patterns of admissions before and after 2000 were compared. Recommendations are made for future recording of delayed discharges and the adequacy of the number of assessment and treatment in-patient places in Scotland is discussed.