More than 5,000 mental health patients have been sent at least 62 miles from home for treatment in the two years since ministers pledged to banish the “dangerous” practice.
The disclosure prompted calls for the “scandal” of out of area placements in mental health care to end, with claims that it represents “another broken government promise on the NHS”.
Chronic shortages of mental health beds have for years forced the health service in England to send hundreds of patients a month to be admitted for care, sometimes a long way from their own area.
But in 2016 ministers and NHS bosses committed to end the use of “inappropriate” placements – those caused by a lack of beds and for which there is no clinical justification – by the end of March 2021, after an outcry over the damage they cause.
Mental health campaigners, psychiatrists and patients’ families have argued that being far from home can make already vulnerable patients feel isolated, deprive them of regular visits from relatives, increase the risk of self-harm and reduce their chances of making a recovery.
Analysis of NHS data by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) has found that 8,925 new “inappropriate” placements occurred between April 2021 and March this year. Of those, 5,335 involved a patient being sent at least 100km (62 miles) from home.
An average of 12 new placements a day started during that time, despite the pledge.
“It’s appalling that the government have not brought an end to the scandal of out of area mental health placements, two years after the deadline they gave themselves for doing exactly that”, said Rosena Allin-Khan, the shadow cabinet minister for mental health, who is also an NHS doctor.
“Two years on, this is another disgraceful broken promise on the NHS, with patients suffering far away from their loved ones and support networks.”
Since April 2021, a total of 695 patients – one in 14 of the total – have been sent to a mental health unit at least 300km (186 miles) away, according to the RCP’s findings.
They included one patient who was taken 605km (378 miles) away from their home in Plymouth, Devon to a residential psychiatric unit in Darlington, Durham in March due to the beds crisis.
Dr Andrew Molodynski, a psychiatrist and the British Medical Association’s (BMA) health policy lead, said: “It is shameful that mental health patients are being routinely let down by this government, who are now two years past their target of ending the practice of sending patients out of area for treatment by March 2021, and still failing miserably.
“This isolating and dehumanising practice is a direct consequence of a fragmented and underfunded mental health care system that has been letting patients down for far too long,” he added.
The RCP and the BMA have written to Maria Caulfield, the mental health minister, recommending a major expansion of community-based services to help reduce the number of people ending up in a mental health crisis and needing inpatient care in the first place.
Dr Adrian James, the RCP’s president, said: “This unacceptable practice … risks patients’ mental health to such a degree that they often remain in hospital for longer.”
The Department of Health and Social Care did not respond directly to the new figures. But a spokesperson insisted that it did still intend to end out of area care. “Everyone should have access to safe mental health care close to home, and we are committed to ending inappropriate out of area placements for adult patients,” they said.
“We’re investing an extra £2.3bn per year in mental health services by March 2024, so that an additional 2 million people can get the support they need and investing an extra £150m to help people experiencing a mental health crisis.”
