Severely distressed children ‘travelling miles’ for care

SEVERELY distressed children have been sent miles for care after whole regions were left without a single suitable bed, a report warns.

The study of child and adolescent mental health services found basic standards were being missed, with children left to suffer extra trauma when placed on adult psychiatric wards. On three occasions last year, bed shortages were so severe that whole regions of England were left without any specialist inpatient mental health beds, the report states.

On two dates in April 2016 there were no Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) inpatient beds available in the NHS South region which covers the South East, South Central and South West.

And on June 1 2016 there were no CAMHS beds in London, according to a report from the Education Policy Institute.

The study said shortages had left children being treated on adult wards or entering hospitals a long way from home. In total, there were 331 hospital stays for children which were 30 or more miles from their home in March 2017. In other cases, those in need of specialist hospital care were “inappropriately” left to rely on community services, the authors wrote.

Between Oct and Dec 2016, under-18s spent a total of 2,700 days in adult hospitals, the study found. It said some suffered “severe” consequences, with one child witnessing a successful suicide attempt.

While the number of beds has increased by 71 per cent since 1999, to 1,440 across England, the number of beds available in each region varies, the authors found. The North-east had three times as many beds compared with its population as the South-west.