Mental health patients forced to travel miles for care

A lack of beds is forcing mental health patients in England to seek treatment in other NHS facilities up to hundreds of miles away, BBC research has found.

The number of patients travelling to seek emergency treatment has more than doubled in two years – from 1,301 people in 2011-12 to 3,024 in 2013-14.

Earlier this year one patient was admitted to a deaf unit as no beds were available anywhere in the country.

Health minister Norman Lamb said out-of-area treatment was a “last resort”.

The care and support minister added that it was “unacceptable” if patients had to travel “hundreds of miles” for treatment and said he was determined to drive up standards of care in the NHS.

Leading charities have called the situation scandalous and a disgrace.

One mental health trust spent £345,000 last year placing patients in bed-and-breakfast accommodation in order to free up much-needed beds.

Mental health trusts are having to cope with cuts of more than 1,700 beds over the past two years.

Figures obtained as part of the investigation, through Freedom of Information requests, show some trusts are managing to maintain, or even reduce, the number of people they send elsewhere.

But the data from 30 of England’s 58 mental health trusts shows that overall the number of patients sent out of area has more than doubled between 2011-12 and 2013-14.

The increase comes despite the number of patients being admitted to hospital for mental health problems falling slightly from 167,285 in 2011-12 to 166,654 in 2012-13.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, said: “It is a disgrace that people with mental health problems are being sent miles away from family and friends or being accommodated in inappropriate settings when they are acutely unwell.

“This is the latest in a long line of clear signals that, at least in some parts of the country, NHS mental health services are in crisis. Continued cuts to funding for mental health services are taking a significant toll on the quality and availability of services.”

Mark Winstanley, chief executive of Rethink Mental Illness, added: “It’s absolutely scandalous that people with serious mental health problems are being treated in such a terrible way.

“Anyone going through a mental health crisis should expect to get help in a therapeutic environment where they can get better.

“The last thing they need is to be shunted to a hospital hundreds of miles away or, even worse, left to fend for themselves in a bed and breakfast.”