Autopsy services for old age psychiatrists in England and Wales: A survey of consumer satisfaction

✍ Scribed by Emyr W. Benbow; Susan M. Benbow; Helen Reid

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 551 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930090106

✦ Synopsis

Anecdotal evidence suggests that some old age psychiatrists are dissatisfied and disillusioned with their local autopsy services, and so we carried out a postal survey to assess the extent of the problem. Our most striking finding was that over a quarter of old age psychiatrists are, indeed, dissatisfied with their autopsy service, but only with the neuropathological component; very few were dissatisfied with the way other organ systems were examined. This dissatisfaction is very strongly associated with services where autopsies on psychogeriatric patients are carried out by general histopathologists, especially where there is no established facility for the brain to be preserved and subsequently examined by a neuropathologist. The main complaint about neuropathologists was that reports sometimes took an unacceptable length of time to be returned to the clinician. The solution to the difficulties experienced by old age psychiatrists would be a closer association with their local neuropathology services, but whether neuropathologists are in a position to increase their workloads remains to be determined.