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This World Mental Health Day, NHS leaders are urging the government to increase investment in community mental health teams, after new data revealed some mental health patients are waiting for up to 80 hours in A&E.
The NHS Confederation has described the situation as a “society wide crisis”, that is having serious knock-on consequences for patients across the NHS.
A lack of community care means mental health patients have ‘nowhere to go’
Health leaders are particularly concerned about the lack of alternative, appropriate mental health care, which is leading mental health patients to turn up at A&E and queue up for long periods of time while they wait to be redirected to more suitable care.
This is also causing these patients to be admitted into acute hospital beds meant for physically ill patients, which then delays treatment for other patients.
One acute trust in the Southeast of England told the NHS Confederation that a lack of community mental health support often means they have “no other choice but to admit.”
While another trust in the North of England said their mental health patients often have to wait “three or more days” in their emergency department before they are seen.
Indeed, recent data shows that mental health patients are more than twice as likely to wait over 12 hours or more in A&E compared to all other patients, with nearly one in five waiting for over half a day in June 2023.
Mental health must be ‘reprioritised’
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of NHS Confederation says concern is growing as the NHS heads into the “very pressured winter months” and he is urging the government to invest in community mental health support, set up temporary step-up beds and bring on more specialist staff.
“We know that there is increasing demand for mental health support, but with limited supply in the community, this demand is washing up on the shores of wider NHS services and having a knock-on effect on the care of other patients, waiting times and recovery efforts.
“People are coming to A&E and having to wait very long periods of time to either be admitted or found the right package of care for those needs in the community. NHS leaders say that this is now leading to thousands of patients being admitted to acute care beds when this may not be the right clinical setting for them and risks their mental health deteriorating further as a result.”
Mr Taylor says the NHS is increasingly being left our on a limb trying to solve the crisis, when the reality is that many of the solutions to this problem “lie outside of the NHS.”
Sean Duggan, chief executive of NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network says leaders now want to see mental health “reprioritised.”
“A good place to start would be with the implementation of the clinically led review of standards for mental health, which includes A&E related urgent and emergency care mental health targets as well,” he said.