Dr. Susan Finnerty:

I agree. With regard to after hours, in nearly all places, it is the accident and emergency department people arrive at. There are some services that do provide an eight-to-eight or seven-to-seven service and there are few that provide a limited seven-day service but it is very limited. The other difficulty in some places is that when people do come to accident and emergency departments and are seen by the psychiatrist, the units to which they would be admitted are full. This leads to all kinds of difficulties such as people staying long periods of time in accident and emergency departments and people being discharged from accident and emergency units when it may not be the best thing for them. During office hours, in most cases, there are day hospitals or areas where people can come and see somebody in an emergency so that they do not have to go to an accident and emergency unit. In some places, there are home-based treatment teams that will go out and assess somebody in his or her home but it is very patchy and inconsistent across the country.