Speaking to the RCN Congress in Liverpool general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said the number of people waiting over 12 hours after a decision to be admitted to a mental health unit had grown by 383% since 2019.
Prof Ranger said: ‘Nothing less than urgent and sustained investment in community mental health nursing can ensure everybody gets timely care in the right place. That is how you turn people's lives around and ease pressure on emergency departments.'
The RCN boss also condemned cuts made to mental health beds and calls for the long-awaited urgent and emergency care improvement plan in England to include specific measures to address the mental health crisis in A&E.
RCN FOI requests to NHS trusts in England revealed at least 1.3m people have presented to A&E in a mental health crisis in the last six months.
The demand for secondary mental health services in England has grown 106% in a decade – from 1.8m to 3.8m contacts and referrals between 2014/15 and 2023/24. Over the same period, the number of registered mental health nurses in the NHS in England has only grown 12% (from a monthly average of 36,758 to 41,100). While the number of community mental health nurses has grown by 39% (from a monthly average of 14,994 to 20,829).
Despite the entire mental health workforce rising by 23% between 2010 and 2023, the number of nurses only increased by 3% during that period, the RCN said. Meanwhile, therapists and support staff rose by 45%. The union said that unlike mental health nurses, neither were trained to support people in acute distress forced to wait long periods in A&E and who require immediate and intensive help.
Reaction
NHS Providers' director of policy and strategy, Isabel Lawicka, said: ‘Despite some progress in growing the mental health workforce, there are continuing shortfalls both in the number and skill-mix of staff. Retention, particularly of mental health nurses, remains a challenge.
‘We need to see a fully costed and funded national workforce plan for health and care staff that includes an ambitious programme of training and development and capital investment to ensure a better therapeutic environment for patients and better places to work for staff.'
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘People with mental health issues are not getting the support or care they deserve and we know that many NHS staff feel burnt out and demoralised, having been overworked for years.
‘That's why this Government is investing an extra £680m in mental health services this year, to help recruit 8,500 more mental health workers and put mental health support in every school.
‘We have also launched one of the world's first 24/7 mental health crisis support services via NHS 111 and announced a £26m investment in new crisis centres, to ensure patients can get timely support from a trained mental health professional.'
