Mentally ill children dumped on wrong hospital wards

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It comes as data obtained by The Independent shows: 70,000 children attended A&E with a mental health need in 2022, with 4,825 of these waiting more than 12 hours to be seen – almost double the number who waited that long in 2021 The number of children with eating disorders being treated on paediatric wards has more than doubled in three years, rising from 473 in 2019 to 1,029 in 2022 A mentally ill patient spent 260 days on a general ward in 2022, while another child stayed for 386 days at another hospital from 2021 Dr Camilla Kingdon, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said she was “deeply concerned” about the situation. One organisation told me that they had started to provide mental health support to medical staff carrying out restraint under these circumstances.” open image in gallery The number of children needing mental health care has surged since the pandemic One NHS chief nurse told The Independent the “biggest” paediatrics challenge at his trust was dealing with the number of children with eating disorders, with there being three times the level than before the pandemic being admitted to their wards. “Most paediatric hospitals will have one or two spaces, but they will not have the capacity for the current crisis in children’s mental health,” he said. “We have this bizarre, old-fashioned view of physical healthcare, that what a hospital needs is just doctors, nurses and other staff who’ve only been trained in physical health.” An NHS spokesperson said: “The most recent figures show that the NHS is now treating more young people than ever before and the mental health workforce continues to grow in line with this demand – more than 2,000 trained mental health practitioners have been introduced into schools for additional and earlier support so as ever, do come forward if you need help.” A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said it had invested £2.5bn a year into mental health services, which would mean 345,000 more children will be able to access support by 2024.