The Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Acquired Brain Injury (HoNOS–ABI) is a relatively new outcome measure designed to assess the neuropsychiatric sequelae of brain damage. This study investigated the interrater reliability of this scale. Fifty patients with traumatic brain injury receiving rehabilitation were each rated twice on the HoNOS–ABI, by two different raters. There were 24 raters in total.

Weighted kappa values ranged from 0.43 to 0.84 and intraclass correlation coefficients from 0.58 to 0.97 for the ten items assessed. This indicated that agreement was moderate to substantial for all items.

The scales consistently measured the items of interest across different raters. This indicates that HoNOS–ABI is a reliable outcome measure when applied by different raters in routine clinical practice.

To investigate patients' views on receiving copies of letters sent by their healthcare professionals, 72 patients were asked about their willingness to receive a copy of the letter sent to their general practitioner and about preferences for the type of information to be included in such letters. We also asked what concerns, if any, they had about the process.

Three-quarters of the respondents (n=55) said they would like to receive a copy of the letter. Patients accepted the inclusion of information about their illness but were reluctant for data about their family, work and finances to be included.

Although the majority of the patients we interviewed wished to have the copy letter, many of them expressed concerns about confidentiality, the risk of distress and the cost of the process to the National Health Service. The rights of those who do not want copy letters should also be respected.

To describe the experiences of psychiatric senior house officers (SHOs) of being on call. A survey of SHOs on three on-call rotas across south Birmingham was conducted to investigate their opinions about on-call work and to consider how time on call is spent.

SHOs in psychiatry gain a broad range of experience out of hours on a traditional on-call rota. On-call periods were valued as a learning experience and 63% of SHOs were confident in their decision-making while on call. However, on-call work was often viewed as isolating, and not all SHOs felt that they were working as part of a team when on call.

As changes to working patterns are introduced, for example in order to implement the European Working Time Directive, care must be taken to retain the positive aspects of current on-call systems. Such changes should be seen as an opportunity to improve working lives so that SHOs feel less isolated when providing out-of-hours cover.

A questionnaire was sent to 122 psychiatric trainees in the west of Scotland to clarify the extent to which trainees provide physical healthcare to their in-patients and to establish trainees' views on the need for further training.

Almost all of the 65 respondents were expected to provide emergency care, and a large majority dealt with physical health problems on a regular basis. Few respondents had received any formal training in physical health care problems since entering psychiatry.

The results of the questionnaire suggest that psychiatric trainees are currently providing a considerable amount of physical healthcare for psychiatric in-patients. Clarifying the medical experiences and training of psychiatric trainees may help to inform future debate as to the appropriate management of physical healthcare for psychiatric patients.

With the changes introduced recently to the Part I clinical examination, trainers will be expected to modify MRCPsych course teaching accordingly. The aim of this paper is to describe the procedure for organising a mock objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for MRCPsych trainees.

Prior to the introduction of the new OSCE, we organised an authentic mock OSCE for our trainees. We have now run three consecutive mock examinations which have been successfully evaluated.

A well-organised mock OSCE requires significant investment in terms of planning, resources and enthusiasm, but can have a potentially beneficial impact on and preparation for the real OSCE and training in general.