Mental health care ‘being rationed’ over failure to cut spiralling waiting list, top doctor warns
Mental health care is being rationed because the government is failing to tackle the spiralling waiting list, the UK’s top psychiatrist has warned, with 48,000 people facing delays of more than two years for treatment to start.
Nearly 1.7 million people were waiting for community care, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist appointment, for treatments including everything from severe depression to serious personality disorders at the end of December 2024.
That is up from 1.3 million in March 2024 and is in addition to the 7.4 million people on the countrywide NHS waiting list, which only counts patients with physical health problems.
Dr Lade Smith, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the figures proved that mental health care was being downgraded in favour of other services.
She said: “It’s very clear that there has been a prioritisation of services; mental health care is not one of those services. As far as I’m concerned, it’s been rationed for years. It’s not been prioritised, full stop. I say that because we’ve got 1.7 million people who were waiting for mental health services.
“They are not being prioritised and so there is rationing of mental health care, full stop.”
Source: The Independent, 23 July 2025