At one hospital, some patients have become so upset at the delays in being admitted that they have left and tried to kill themselves nearby, leading nurses and the fire brigade to follow in an attempt to stop them.
A&E staff are so busy dealing with patients seeking help with physical health emergencies that security guards rather than nurses sometimes end up looking after mental health patients.
The findings are included in research by the Royal College of Nursing. Its leader, Prof Nicola Ranger, called the long waits facing those in serious mental ill health, and the difficulties faced by A&E staff seeking to care for them, “a scandal in plain sight”.
Its findings, based on freedom of information requests to NHS trusts in England and evidence from senior nurses, found that at least 5,260 people a year in a mental health crisis wait more than 12 hours for a bed after a decision has been made to admit them.
The RCN’s research into “prolonged and degrading” long stays in A&E also disclosed that: The number of people seeking help at A&E for mental health emergencies is rising steadily and reached 216,182 last year. The recruitment of mental health nurses has lagged far behind the rise in demand. The number of beds in mental health units has fallen by 3,699 since 2014.
Rachelle McCarthy, a senior charge nurse at Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust, said the “brightly lit, noisy” environment in her A&E was “close to torture” for those in mental distress and that patients often got so frustrated that they left.