THE NHS is trialling mental health A&Es with "calm and welcoming" environments in order to tackle overcrowding.
These new units will deal with patients who are suicidal or experiencing psychosis or mania without the "noise and chaos" of a normal hospital.
Trialled across 10 NHS trusts, the units will be open 24/7 and welcome walk-ins along with those referred by police or GPs.
Staffed by specially-trained doctors and nurses, the units are part of the 10-year NHS plan and could be expanded nationally.
The idea behind the mental health A&Es is to tackle the "corridor care" crisis which has led to horrifying treatment across the country.
It's been reported that patients are dying in A&E corridors and waiting rooms without painkillers.
Another patient died under a coat in a waiting room, and one was not found until hours later because staff were too busy to notice they had passed away.
According to , the units will aim to tackle the root cause of the mental health crisis.
One of the trial A&Es come complete with emotional support dogs, miniature pinschers called Maxwell and Mitsi.
The pooches cuddle up to patients and there are trays full of tea, coffee and biscuits.
Toti Freysson, the mental health nurse who manages the service at Ladbroke Grove, west London, said anyone who walks in is seen within 10 minutes.
In 2024, a record 1.7 million patients had to wait at least 12 hours in A&E.
The long waits were linked to thousands of avoidable deaths.
Mental health patients are twice as likely to experience long waits , and some reported waiting up to 18 days to get a bed.
The west London mental health site reported seeing around 300 patients a month.
It has three bedrooms and patients can stay for a few nights without having to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
Dr Mehtab Rahman, a consultant psychiatrist at the centre, told The Times: “Often A&E is the most inappropriate place for mental health patients. These are people who might be hearing voices in their head telling them to kill themselves — imagine having to wait four to six hours to be seen.”
The Minister for Mental Health, Baroness Merron, told The Sun: “Too often, people experiencing mental health crisis are not getting the support or care they deserve, and so it is vital that we continue to provide a range of services like this one”
“Backed by an extra £680 million in government funding this year, we are transforming mental health services – investing £26 million in new mental health crisis centres, hiring more staff, delivering more talking therapies, and getting waiting lists down through our Plan for Change.
“On top of this, through our proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act, we will ensure people with the most severe mental health conditions get better more personalised care.”
Over 958,200 children in England were referred to Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services last year.
Anxiety was the most common reason, followed by neurodevelopmental conditions and autism.
By Isabel Shaw
FRAIL patients at a Kent hospital were "told to soil themselves" because there was no one available to help them to the toilet, staff have revealed.
At Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, patients faced waits of more than 50 hours without access to basic wash facilities.
Some were left "sitting in their own faeces," Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors were told.
One patient shared: "I had been left sitting in my own faeces all day because there was no one available to help."
Jayne Black, chief executive of the Medway NHS Foundation Trust which runs the hospital, apologised to patients and said improvements had since been made.
During an inspection in February 2024, the CQC uncovered serious issues in the emergency department.
Inspectors found the department overcrowded, with 14 patients crammed into a resuscitation area meant for just nine people, while another 15 were treated in the corridor.
The department was described as "not suitable for the number of people" it was trying to care for.
A published on March 5 described patients who said they saw staff "crying on the phone for help", but "no one seemed to turn up".
One patient said they were left "sitting on a chair in the corridor for 55 hours," and when they asked staff if they could shower, they were told they could only wash by splashing themselves with water from the toilet sink.
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