Mental health care ‘being rationed' over failure to cut spiralling waiting list, top doctor warns
Nearly 1.7 million people were waiting for community care, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist appointment, for treatments including everything from severe depression to serious personality disorders at the end of December 2024.
That is up from 1.3 million in March 2024 and is in addition to the 7.4 million people on the national NHS waiting list, which only counts patients with physical health problems.
Dr Lade Smith, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the figures proved mental health care was being downgraded in favour of other services.
She said: 'It's very clear that there has been a prioritisation of services; mental healthcare is not one of those services. As far as I'm concerned, it's been rationed for years. It's not been prioritised, full stop. I say that because you know, we've got we have 1.7 million people who were waiting for mental health services.
'They are not being prioritised and so there is rationing of mental healthcare, full stop.'
Last week, the government launched its 10-year plan for the future of the NHS, which recommits to previous promises to expand mental health teams in schools and create specialist mental health A&Es across the country. However, it does not make commitments to reduce the number of people already waiting to be seen.
It comes as the latest figures reveal:
As of April, 10,198 adults were waiting more than two years for treatment to start with community mental health teams
Some 35,735 children and young people were waiting more than two years for a second contact
Delayed discharges from hospital units hit a post-Covid record of 53,000, up from 27,000 in March 2020
In October, a record 2.9 million people were in contact with mental health services
A post-pandemic record of 7.8 million antidepressant NHS prescriptions were issued in December 2024
Fewer than 5 per cent of people who need NHS counselling have been able to access it this year
The Labour government was recently criticised for dropping the previous Tory government's commitment to grow mental health funding at the same rate or more than the overall NHS budget to tackle the inequality in investment.
Dr Smith said it was 'simply illogical' not to invest in good mental healthcare, as it drives productivity and economic growth.
Meanwhile, the NHS's director for mental health, Claire Murdoch, said the lack of sufficient care in the community was driving more people to A&E, by which time, patients have often been in crisis for weeks or months without help.
She added: '[That] I think is a bigger scandal than a slightly long A&E wait - if people are losing weeks or months of their lives because we don't have housing or community packages.'
Addressing the lack of equality in mental health waiting lists compared to physical health, Ms Murdoch said: 'Our waiting lists are as important as any waiting list…When waiting lists are at the same level as any other parity will have been achieved.'
Sarah, 52, a single mother of three, told The Independent of the 'horrific' experience of seeing her autistic teenage daughter, Bay, who was forced to live on a mental health ward for almost two months because there was no community care for her. WHEN
Bay, who has autism, was first admitted to a children's mental health unit in London when she was 16 years old. Her mental health declined, and her behaviour became 'increasingly unpredictable' during the pandemic after the family moved to London from South Africa, Sarah said.
Despite numerous appointments with child and adolescent mental health services in the community, Bay's care was 'fragmented and inadequate', her mother said.
In 2023, as her mental health began to seriously deteriorate, Bay was taken to A&E after she threatened to harm herself. She spent 24 hours there before being admitted to an inpatient unit where she remained for 46 days.
Her mother said she was held in the hospital as they could not find an appropriate residential placement for her, and it was not safe for her to return home. Two months later, a place was eventually found for her in supported accommodation.
She said, 'It was horrific. I felt helpless. I'm not a psychiatrist or therapist, and autistic children with mental health issues are often just contained, not supported, and this needs to change.'
'Autistic children are special. We need a different approach — using creativity, understanding sensory needs, offering proper support, not just containment. One positive was that when Bay was in the hospital, it was the first time in a long, long time that I felt that she was safe and that I could breathe. Before that, I had needed to watch her and keep us safe 24 hours a day.'
Sarah Wakeling, CEO at Positive Support Group, which supported Bay at home, said: "Our new analysis underlines the growing pressure on NHS mental health services and the urgent need to rethink how we provide support for these people. The NHS has recently committed to opening new mental health A&Es. But just as important is addressing gaps in early intervention, specialist education, and community-based mental health care – so that we can help people before they need urgent care.'
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'Our commitment to improving this through our Plan for Change is clear. We have announced £26 million to open new mental health crisis centres, are recruiting an extra 8,500 mental health staff, and expanding mental health support teams in schools across England to cover all pupils by 2029-30.'
'We are also funding the expansion of NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes, and modernising the Mental Health Act to ensure people with the most severe conditions receive better, more personalised treatment.'
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He was sentenced to two life orders in December 2021, meaning he will never be released. The sentencing hearing heard impact statements from a string of the victims' family members. The mother of Fuller's youngest victim, a nine-year-old girl, addressed him directly, saying: 'David, you know who I am because you read the letter I wrote to my baby.' She added: 'You raped my baby. She couldn't say no to the dirty 66-year-old man who was abusing her body. I feel guilty I left her there. I will not enjoy my life again. This unnatural sick pain I will never get over.' The father of an 18-year-old victim said: 'The only bit of comfort we held on to was how peaceful she looked when we said our goodbyes. 'This was destroyed when we got a knock on the door by the police to say she had been violated by a man my wife had grown up in fear of. 'Fuller has taken our little girl's innocence and destroyed our souls. I am consumed with anger.' The widower of another woman told him: 'David, when you are serving your time behind bars, think carefully about what you have done and thank your lucky stars that I'm not sharing a cell with you.' Ordering Fuller to stand, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb QC said: 'These were premeditated killings, carefully planned and executed. 'You had no regard for the dignity of the dead. You have spent the last 45 years living an outwardly mild and ordinary life. 'You were described as a man good under pressure while in seclusion you committed acts of the deepest darkness. 'You became a vulture, picking your victims from among the dead within the hidden world of hospital mortuaries which you were free to inhabit simply because you had a swipe card. 'The depravity of what you did reveals your conscience is seared. You will spend every day of the rest of your life in prison.' Morgue rapist David Fuller: A timeline of the heinous offences 1973: Fuller grew up in a terraced house in Angerstein Road, Portsmouth, and was living at the address when he was convicted of 26 counts of burglary. June 23, 1987: Ms Knell is found dead in her apartment in Guildford Road on by her boyfriend. The bed, duvet and pillows were bloodstained, and her bloodstained head was resting on a towel. Police could find no signs of forced entry, and neighbours heard nothing through the flat's thin walls. November 24, 1987: Ms Pierce, manager at a popular restaurant, is murdered by Fuller. However, it is not until three weeks later that her body - naked apart from a pair of tights - is found in a water-filled dyke of a remote field on Romney Marsh in Kent. January 1989: Fuller begins working as an electrical maintenance craftsman at Kent and Sussex and Tunbridge Wells hospitals. 2008: The first evidence of Fuller having filmed and photographed himself sexually abusing the bodies of dozens of women at the mortuaries. 2012: Kent Police reveals it has a full DNA profile of their prime suspect for the murders of Ms Knell and Ms Pierce. 2015: Fuller has to undergo a criminal record check for the first time in the wake of revelations Jimmy Savile sexually assaulted patients. It emerges he had convictions for burglaries in the 1970s that he is understood to have previously lied about. December 2020: Fuller is identified as the prime suspect in the murders after a DNA breakthrough achieved by analysing genetic material found at the crime scenes and searching criminal databases for relatives. Officers arrest him at his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, where he lived with his family, in the early hours of December 3. January 2021: Fuller admits responsibility for both killings at Maidstone Crown Court, but his barrister says he will deny murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He is later charged with additional offences relating to the sexual abuse of more than 100 victims. November 4, 2021: After his trial gets underway, Fuller changes his plea to guilty. He also admits a further 51 offences related to sexually abusing at least 102 victims, of which 82 have been identified, in the mortuaries over more than a decade. December 15, 2021: Fuller is sentenced to two whole life orders at Maidstone Crown Court. The Government launches an independent inquiry in 2021 to investigate how Fuller was able to carry out his crimes undetected. November 28, 2023
