New research has found the introduction of remote consultations in primary care during the pandemic wasn't associated with an increase of psychiatric hospital admissions for people with anxiety, depression or severe mental illness.
New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in partnership with the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, has found that the introduction of remote consultations in primary care during the pandemic wasn't associated with an increase of psychiatric hospital admissions for people with anxiety, depression or severe mental illness.
The research, published in Nature Mental Health, did however establish a modest increase in the number of people seeking emergency contact with their mental health liaison teams. Researchers suggest that the shift to remote consultations did not result in a compromise in patient safety regarding severe outcomes.
While the NHS first introduced remote consultations in 2012, it wasn't until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that it was widely taken up by patients. Following increased use, concerns were raised as to the impact on patient outcomes. Researchers in this study wanted to assess the relationship between the number of remote consultations in primary care and subsequent acute mental health service use.
Using data sourced from the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) platform, researchers were able to access and analyse the anonymised patient records of 107,993 patients diagnosed with depression, anxiety or severe mental illness, and who'd had a remote primary care consultation between 1January 2019 and 31 December 2021.
Their analysis of the data found that, for every 10 per cent rise in the number of remote consultations, emergency presentations to mental health liaison teams increased by 4 per cent.
"As services continue to refine how digital and in-person care are combined, our results from a cohort of 107.993 patients provide reassurance that remote primary care consultations for people with mental health conditions were not associated with increased psychiatric admissions, longer hospital stays, nor compulsory detentions"
Dr Mariana Pinto da Costa, Senior Lecturer at King's IoPPN and the study's senior author
Further analysis however found no evidence that the switch to remote consultations resulted in increased admissions to psychiatric hospital, inpatient bed-days, or compulsory detentions under the Mental Health Act. The researchers suggest this demonstrates that patient safety was not compromised despite the change in service delivery.
Liliana Hidalgo-Padilla, the study's first author from King's IoPPN said, "There were real concerns that moving care to remote consultations might worsen outcomes for people with mental health conditions. However, we found no evidence that remote primary care consultations led to severe hospital outcomes, which is reassuring as services continue to balance digital and face-to-face care."
This work was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) South London, the NIHR ARC North Thames and the NIHR ARC Northwest London, and a UKRI-Economic and Social Research Council London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership PhD studentship.
Primary care consultation modality and acute mental health service use in adults (Liliana Hidalgo-Padilla, Eoin Gogarty, Reese Sarkodie, Fiona Gaughran, Robert Stewart & Mariana Pinto da Costa) (DOI10.1038/s44220-026-00605-9) was published in Nature Mental Health.
