The total number of cases of under-18s reporting to NHS Accident and Emergency units with 'psychiatric conditions' – and having to wait more than the Government’s target of four hours - has nearly trebled since David Cameron came to power in 2010.
Labour claims that growing pressure on inpatient services follows cuts to early intervention and community based services for mental health.
A report by the Health Select Committee last year, following its official inquiry into children's mental health services, warned that “in many areas early intervention services are being cut or are suffering from insecure or short term funding”.
Critics claim that out of desperation, many children and young people are turning up to hospital emergency units – where they then have to wait long periods for treatment.
However, the longer waits in A&E may also point to the wider crisis in Accident and Emergency units over the past year in particular.
A written Parliamentary answer by Health Minister Alistair Burt revealed that provisional figures for the first six months of 2015/16 have a stubbornly high number of admissions waiting in A&E for more than four hours, with 237 cases in September last year.
The statistics, in answer to Parliamentary questions from Labour’s Shadow Mental Health minister Luciana Berger, were revealed as cross-party support mobilised behind the Duchess of Cambridge’s call for more focus on children’s mental health in Young Minds Matter, which saw her guest edit The Huffington Post UK on Wednesday.
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