Mental Health Emergency Rooms to Be Established Across England, as Mental Health Patients Face Longest Waits in General A&E

One in Three Patients Waits Over 12 Hours
NHS Plans Nationwide Expansion Over 10 Years

The National Health Service (NHS), the United Kingdom's public healthcare system, has decided to operate mental health emergency rooms (A&E) across England.

According to The Times and BBC on May 24 (local time), the mental health emergency rooms will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and will be staffed by specialists and nurses who will provide emergency medical services to patients experiencing suicidal thoughts or symptoms of mental illness.

An ambulance inside a hospital in London, England. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has experienced a decline in the quality of NHS services, including long waiting times. Patients with mental health conditions have been found to face even longer waits than other patients. Last year, among the 250,000 patients in the UK who visited general emergency rooms due to a mental health crisis, one third had to wait more than 12 hours.

The NHS and authorities expect that operating mental health emergency rooms will help prevent the deterioration of patients' conditions. They also anticipate that this will reduce overall hospital congestion and ease the burden on emergency services, including the police.

Mental health emergency rooms are currently being piloted at 10 NHS England Trusts. The plan is to expand them nationwide over the next 10 years.