Mental healthcare in England is a national emergency, say hospital bosses

Mental healthcare in England has become “a national emergency”, with “overwhelmed” services unable to cope with a big post-Covid surge in people needing help, NHS bosses say.

Care is so stretched that thousands of people undergoing a mental health crisis are having to be admitted every year to acute hospitals, even though they are not set up to deal with them.

Hospital bosses claim mental health in England has been “forgotten” by ministers who are giving priority to tackling the record 7.7m-strong care backlog, access to GPs and ongoing NHS strikes.

“Mental health has slipped down the government’s set of priorities and patients and services are being forgotten. This is a national emergency which is now having serious consequences across the board, not least for those patients in crisis,” said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation.

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Source: The Guardian, 9 October 2023