The longest wait in the history of NHS for a mental health patient

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
4 Jul 2022 22:58

As the UK struggles with inflation and further medical strain, the NHS has now witnessed its longest wait for a mental health patient in crisis at 8.5 days.

As the wait became more agonizing for her, she self-harmed by hitting her head against a wall. (The Guardian)

The longest wait for a psychiatric hospital bed in the NHS was reportedly eight and a half days for an 18-year-old woman experiencing a mental health crisis before she was given a bed in A&E, the emergency department in the UK.

Because there were no beds available in a mental health facility, the woman, who chose to remain anonymous, was left in the care of the police and security personnel and forced to spend the night in a chair and on a mattress on the floor in the A&E at St Helier hospital in Sutton, south London.

As her struggle progressed, she grew more "dejected, despairing and desperate" and her mental health deteriorated as she waited. As the wait became more agonizing for her, she self-harmed by hitting her head against a wall. Eventually, the lady ran away twice because she was unsure of the exact day when her inpatient treatment would begin.

According to a written account, the lady’s parents were increasingly distressed as the NHS told them that no beds were available for their daughter, neither locally nor across the entirety of England. The waiting time of 8.5 days has been believed by the mental health charity, Mind, to be the longest wait in A&E for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis. Mind described the incident as “unacceptable, disgraceful and dangerous." The charity demanded immediate action to address the inadequacies of NHS mental health services and bed availability.

“An eight-and-a-half day wait in A&E for a mental health bed is both unacceptable and disgraceful. Mind has never heard of a patient in crisis waiting this long to receive the care they need, and serious questions need to be raised as to how anyone – let alone an 18-year-old – was left to suffer for so long without the care she needs,” said Rheian Davies, the head of Mind’s legal unit.

Davies also highlighted that this incident should be a red flag and the responsibility of all decision-makers involved in the process “from leaders at the trust to the secretary of state himself,” adding that “a situation like this is indicative of the dire straits our mental health crisis care services are in.”

The family had also contacted their MP Representative who had returned to them in a letter pointing out that their case has not been the first of its kind and that he has been working, since his election, to find a solution, but several decision-makers are involved and so are the mental health trusts.