To analyze the impact of a psychiatric service in a prison general hospital that refers prisoners with mental disorders to a separate forensic psychiatric hospital (FPH).
Method:
Analysis of data on prison population and referrals to the FPH.
Results:
Despite a 10.9% increase in the overall prison system population over 3 years, referrals from the prison general hospital with the new psychiatric service to the FPH were reduced by 36.5%, whereas referrals from other prisons increased by 120.4%.
Conclusion:
Our results demonstrate the efficiency of the new primary health care approach.
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