Mr. Michael Walsh:

That is just the way it is. It leaves the team in limbo for a year. Management, in its wisdom, may look for someone to stand in. That could be an adult psychiatrist or a temporary psychiatrist. Most of the time, in my experience, we do not get cover during holiday time. We do not have anybody. One is left holding whatever one can to stabilise the place and our patients in that time. Most of the time, we take phone calls. There are questions about whether we should even take those phone calls. It is soul destroying when one is there and does not have a clinical lead. The clinical lead takes all responsibility for everything that happens in a clinic, including everything relating to patients and to their treatment. We work off the clinical lead.