Children in mental health crisis spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England

Children suffering mental health crises spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England last year seeking urgent and potentially life-saving help, NHS figures reveal.

Experts said the huge amount of time under-18s with mental health issues were spending in A&E was “simply astounding” and showed that NHS services for that vulnerable age group were inadequate.

Children as young as three and four years old are among those ending up in emergency departments because of mental health problems, according to data obtained by Labour.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the shadow mental health minister, who is also an A&E doctor, said: “With nowhere to turn, children with a mental illness are left to deteriorate and reach crisis point – at which time A&E is the only place left for them to go. Emergency departments are incredibly unsuitable settings for children in crisis, yet we’re witnessing increasingly younger children having to present to A&E in desperation.”

Young people who endured long A&E waits included those with depression, psychosis and eating disorders as well as some who had self-harmed or tried to kill themselves, doctors said.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 February 2023