Children left stuck in hospital due to lack of mental health support

Figures show an increase in the number of ‘wasted days’ spent in hospital by young patients who have been declared fit for discharge.

A thinktank has said the children with serious mental health problems are becoming trapped in NHS psychiatric units, unable to leave because care is unavailable outside hospitals.

Between October 2015 and September 2016 children and young people in England spent almost 9,000 days in hospital after being declared fit to be discharged, NHS figures show.

NHS England did not tell the Education Policy Institute (EPI) how many patients were involved in that time, despite being asked this in a freedom of information request.

The think tank said that data showed the problem was growing.

The total number of ‘wasted days’ was 42 per cent higher between December 2016 and January 2017 than in that of 2015-16. In January alone this year, under-18s spent 804 delayed days in mental health inpatient units, compared to 553 the previous year.

Delayed discharges can occur because the patient’s home area cannot provide the specialist support they need to ensure they remain safe.

EPI research also found that 83 under-18s were treated on adult wards for a total of 2,700 days in the last three months of 2016 - an average of 33 days each.

The number of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) beds available for inpatients has risen by 71 per cent since 1999, although almost half of these are provided by the private sector - not NHS.

CAMHS units have been affected by serious staff shortages. One in nine units is failing to provide staff-to-patient ratios regarded as the minimum acceptable, 24 per cent are struggling to employ enough staff and 19 per cent of the outlay on CAMHS pay goes to temporary bank and agency staff.

Emily Frith, the author of an EPI report on mental’s health, said: “Being in hospital for a mental health condition can be a disturbing experience for a young person. For example, there is the risk that they will witness frightening incidents such as another patient’s self-harm or that their condition gets worse due to being separated from their friends and family.

“Being in hospital also disrupts their education. Young people should therefore remain in hospital for no longer than is necessary.”

Janet Davies, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “The youngest and most vulnerable are being let down by a lack of beds and nursing staff in all parts of the country. Mental health and community care are two of the areas hardest hit by the severe shortage of nurses.”

NHS England said the EPI report “recycles old data [and] ignores the fact that children and young people’s mental health services are now expanding at their fastest rate in over a decade, including new eating disorders clinics, shorter waits for specialist care, and a major increase in specialist inpatient facilities for underserved parts of the country. Rear view mirror commentaries are all very well, but services are now changing fast – for the better.”