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A crisis in mental health care has been declared by NHS staff in East Anglia, across a region covering the constituencies of two government health ministers.
Nurses say that it has become common for there to be no beds available for mental health patients in all of Norfolk and Suffolk, leading to severely ill patients being driven hundreds of miles to hospitals as far as Manchester.
The situation has become so acute that staff, who regularly work excessive hours because they cannot leave their patients until a bed is found, are considering industrial action. In one incident, a mental health professional spent 22 hours with a patient who was eventually driven to a ward in Cheshire.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-hundreds-of-miles-for-treatment-9349907.html
Nurses say that it has become common for there to be no beds available for mental health patients in all of Norfolk and Suffolk, leading to severely ill patients being driven hundreds of miles to hospitals as far as Manchester.
The situation has become so acute that staff, who regularly work excessive hours because they cannot leave their patients until a bed is found, are considering industrial action. In one incident, a mental health professional spent 22 hours with a patient who was eventually driven to a ward in Cheshire.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-hundreds-of-miles-for-treatment-9349907.html