[Dichotomy of psychiatric and somatic emergency care; fundamental flaw should be addressed]

In the Netherlands, acute psychiatric care is characterised by mind-body dualism. For acute psychiatric patients, the first port of call is the general practitioner (GP); after-hour care is provided by the out-of-hours GP service. In contrast to patients with other medical illnesses, the out-of-hours GP service does not usually refer patients with acute psychiatric issues to the accident and emergency (A&E) department of the general hospital, but to the local ambulant psychiatric 'crisis' service. However, some of these patients still end up at the A&E department, as our three cases demonstrate. Integration of the out-of-hours GP service, A&E and acute psychiatric care, therefore, would enable elimination of the current partitioning of somatic and psychiatric medicine in acute emergency care. This solution would not only improve acute emergency care, but would also ensure a targeted and efficient implementation of services and might even lead to a decreased stigmatisation of psychiatric patients in general.