Mental health care patients still face ‘distressing’ travel

People with mental health issues in Avon and Wiltshire are still being sent miles from home for treatment, despite a government pledge to end outof-area placements by 2021.

In the year to January 2022, a total of 255 mental health patients were inappropriately sent out of their area by Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, with 30 of these placements still active by the end of January.

Inappropriate out-of-area placements happen when there are no local beds available and patients are usually sent to a different city or county.

Mental health patients in Avon and Wiltshire spent a combined total of 12,365 days out of their area in the past year, the second highest total of out-of-area days among NHS trusts in England.

Over half (60 per cent) of these patients spent less than a month away for treatment, one in three spent between one and three months, while there were 15 out-ofarea placements that lasted more than three months.

The distance to the units patients are sent to also varies. The majority (77 per cent) of the patients were sent to units less than between 50 and 200km away from their home but there were also five patients who had to travel more than 300km.

In the past year, the trust spent more than £6 million on patients placed out of their area, with each patient costing the NHS £530 a day on average.

Across England, 5,020 patients were sent out of their area in the year up to January 2022 due to a lack of beds locally. A total of 700 of these placements remained active by the end of January. This is despite the government’s plan to eliminate inappropriate out-ofarea placements by March 2021.

Mental health charity Youngminds says it is a “deeply distressing” situation for families involved and calls on the government to end inappropriate out-of-area placements as soon as possible.

Olly Parker, the charity’s head of external affairs says the long distance and the expensive travel costs mean those placed away from their home can only see their family as little as once a fortnight or even less, making an already difficult situation even worse.

“Despite missing their 2021 target, we call on the government to

uphold their commitment to end inappropriate out-of-area placements as soon as possible. For families currently in crisis, this change cannot come quickly enough,” Mr Parker added.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the failure to eliminate all out-of-area placements by 2021 was due to increasing pressure caused by Covid.

The pandemic has led to bed closures due to infection control, Covid-related absences among staff and higher demand for mental health services.

A spokesperson for the department said: “Everyone should have access to safe, appropriate mental health care and we recognise the impact that receiving care far away from loved ones can have.

“That’s why we are investing an extra £2.3 billion per year to transform NHS mental health services by 2024, meaning more people will be able to receive care as close to home as possible.”

The NHS also reiterated its commitment to stop mental health patients having to travel away from home for treatment as soon as possible and noted that out-of-area placements had decreased over the past year.

In January 2022, a total of 315 new patients were placed in mental health units out of their area, down from 585 over the same time period a year ago.