Health bulletin
-
To survey NHS services providing emergency psychiatric assessment in Scotland and to compare the findings with those of the survey conducted 8 years ago. ⋯ Planning the most appropriate emergency and crisis service for any population depends on suitable data being available. Eight years after the first survey there is still no systematic collection of data on emergency contacts in Scotland. The systematic collection of National data is required for effective audit, planning and development of these services. The working definitions proposed in the first survey would be suitable for coding.