Children in mental health crisis waiting up to three days in A&E for specialist bed in England
Key takeaways
- One nurse said long waits were ‘extremely distressing’ for the patients involved and for the staff looking after them.
- Prefer the Guardian on GoogleChildren and young people in England having a mental health crisis are spending up to three days in an A&E unit before they get a bed in a specialist unit, NHS figures reveal.
- One children’s nurse who works in an emergency department said such long waits for under-18s who were in acute distress were “frankly barbaric” but “becoming far more normal”.
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One nurse said long waits were ‘extremely distressing’ for the patients involved and for the staff looking after them. Photograph: Nick Moore/Alamy View image in fullscreen One nurse said long waits were ‘extremely distressing’ for the patients involved and for the staff looking after them. Photograph: Nick Moore/Alamy Mental health Children in mental health crisis waiting up to three days in A&E for specialist bed in England Nurses’ union criticises ‘catastrophic system-wide failure’ in NHS as more under-18s getting stuck in emergency wards
Prefer the Guardian on GoogleChildren and young people in England having a mental health crisis are spending up to three days in an A&E unit before they get a bed in a specialist unit, NHS figures reveal.
One children’s nurse who works in an emergency department said such long waits for under-18s who were in acute distress were “frankly barbaric” but “becoming far more normal”.