ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the development of audit processes within an inner-city National Health Service (NHS) psychotherapy service. In August 1987 the psychotherapy section of the Royal College of Psychiatrists was asked to comment on a series of consultative papers on Performance Indicators. Progress had already been made towards an administration system using a card index which tracked patients’ progress through the department and prompted staff to follow up the patients who had missed appointments. A pilot version of the questionnaire designed to elicit psychotherapy resources was developed. A particularly important point in the management of resources within a psychotherapy department is the assessment and allocation of a patient to a mode of treatment. The cost of treatment is clearly a function involving a number of sessions as well as type of treatment. Resource management is extremely complex as there are several interacting factors.
