The government has announced a scheme that will see general practitioners examine mental health patients in their clinics or homes and get reimbursed by the government.

Health Minister Chris Fearne said the scheme, which will kick off next week, will lead to an improvement in the quality of mental healthcare in the community.

"We want to provide more services to our patients in the community and we want to cut down the number of people needing to enter institutions," the minister said.

He said that while community services already existed through health centers and day centers, there was clearly a need for this expansion. In this way, patients could be seen and treated at home by family doctors who knew them well. 

Having this service would mean that conditions could be detected early, thus removing the need for patients to go to Mount Carmel Hospital. This would help the patient, and it would also help the government from a financial point of view. It would also enable psychiatrists to concentrate on acute cases.

Health Minister Chris Fearne.Health Minister Chris Fearne.

Mr Fearne said the government would issue a call for family GPs who wished to undergo training and join the scheme. 

The minister stressed that private GPs were not viewed as competitors to the public health service, but an important component.    

Dr Anton Grech, who heads mental health services, said the scheme was aimed mainly at people who suffered from psychosis, recurrent unipolar depression and bipolar disorder.  

Such patients who qualified would be able to be followed by their family doctors three times a year, while the Department of Psychiatry would still see them once a year to keep contact.

He said the system would ensure that there was direct contact between GPs and psychiatrists.

"Doctors will have access to all health records of the patient. Mechanisms will be created so that once a GP realises that a patient is deteriorating, he will have fast access to psychiatrists," Dr Grech said.

Training will be given to brush up on psychiatric treatment and to brief the GPs on how the communication system will work.  

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