My experience is that at least one person was found to have massaged the figures to reflect a greater recovery rate and consequent discharge. This was only discovered following a particularly high level of re-referrals for ex-patients and subsequent complaints.
With regard to the PHQ 9 and GAD 7 scoring system, I feel that this could be open to abuse. This may be because workers are under great pressure to perform and elicit results. I believe this to have taken place as a consequence of almost overwhelming pressure to discharge referrals. With more discharges came more referrals and there was never any acknowledgement of best practice or learning lessons appropriately. I understood also that PHQ 9 and GAD 7 only had pertinence for those suffering from mild to moderate mental health conditions. I had to use other tests for those persons who had suffered past trauma and more severe mental illness which I myself as a practitioner “filtered out” as a consequence of them being incorrectly referred to step 2 services.
Anonymity protected – Dr Mike Scott