Northerner
Admin (Retired)
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The NHS crisis intensified this weekend as hospitals were advised to adopt emergency procedures and admit young mental health patients to adult wards because of an acute national shortage of places for children and adolescents.
Instructions sent by NHS England on Friday night to hospital trusts, and leaked to the Observer, state that the shortage of beds for young mental health patients is now so serious that 16- and 17-year-olds – who should be admitted to specialist child adolescent mental health facilities (Camhs) – are likely instead to be admitted to adult wards.
The Mental Health Act 1983 states that 16- and 17-year-olds should only be admitted to adult wards in a “crisis situation” and for a short period, or where a patient is nearly 18 and the adult ward has appropriate specialist services.
Labour’s shadow minister for public health, Luciana Berger, described the situation as “utterly appalling” and blamed the crisis on £50m of cuts to children’s mental health services since 2010.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/31/nhs-crisis-mentally-ill-children-adult-wards
Instructions sent by NHS England on Friday night to hospital trusts, and leaked to the Observer, state that the shortage of beds for young mental health patients is now so serious that 16- and 17-year-olds – who should be admitted to specialist child adolescent mental health facilities (Camhs) – are likely instead to be admitted to adult wards.
The Mental Health Act 1983 states that 16- and 17-year-olds should only be admitted to adult wards in a “crisis situation” and for a short period, or where a patient is nearly 18 and the adult ward has appropriate specialist services.
Labour’s shadow minister for public health, Luciana Berger, described the situation as “utterly appalling” and blamed the crisis on £50m of cuts to children’s mental health services since 2010.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/31/nhs-crisis-mentally-ill-children-adult-wards
