TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Improving the quality of medical reports for mental health tribunals
JO  - Psychiatry, psychology and law
A1  - Hallett, Nicholas
SP  - 430
EP  - 434
VL  - 23
IS  - 3
N2  - The quality of medical reports submitted to Mental Health Tribunals is often variable. A prospective clinical audit was undertaken to improve the quality of reports in line with the Practice Direction from the Tribunals Service and the new Department of Health Code of Practice for the Mental Health Act in England and Wales. Report content was rated by the Tribunal panels and by an independent assessor as part of an audit cycle accompanied by training on medical report writing and the implementation of a new report template. Panels rated over 93% of reports as at least adequate. The detailed content of reports significantly improved from 2014 to 2015 with authors including adjustments for a fair hearing and assessment of a patient's capacity (p<0.001, medium effect sizes; phi 0.379 and 0.382 respectively). This article concludes that the quality of medical reports for tribunals can be improved by training and guidelines.<p />
LA  - en
SN  - 1321-8719
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2015.1080146
ID  - ref1
ER  -