Are bed shortages forcing psychiatrists to find reasons to turn patients away?

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By Erin Dean

As a coroner raises the alarm about doctors imposing "artificially" high standards for psychiatric admissions, many in the field despair at the perverse incentives shaping these decisions.

A coroner has urgently warned that doctors are becoming “hardened” by the ongoing shortage of mental health beds, leading to them raise the threshold for admittance beyond what is necessary or appropriate.