Abolishing Waiting Lists in an Aged Psychiatry Service

Objective: Waiting lists are a problem for most aged psychiatry services. The present paper describes how an aged psychiatry service managed to abolish the waiting list for admission to their acute inpatient unit. Method: The process of developing and implementing a new set of principles and practice for the unit is described. Results: There was a clear and almost immediate difference noted in that the number of admissions and discharges increased and the length of stay and occupancy rates decreased. Conclusions: It is possible to abolish waiting lists without increasing the bed numbers in an aged psychiatry service.