Data reveals long mental health waits in A&E for Crawley residents

Labour have released data from FOI requests showing the waiting lists for adults and children waiting in A&E for mental health treatment, as calls grow for the Government to address their failed handling of mental health services across the country.

Since 2010, the Conservative Government have cut one-in-four mental health beds across the country, as waiting times for treatment have soared. Across Sussex, there were 16,895 children on waiting lists in December and 36,750 adults.

Many mental health services are at breaking point after 13 years of Conservative Government – staff are overstretched, and NHS services have been neglected for over a decade. The result is that hundreds of thousands of people are turned away from services without having any treatment. In Sussex, 5,985 referrals were closed before the patient received any treatment, a staggering number.

Labour have a plan to tackle these problems, by recruiting thousands more mental health staff, guaranteeing treatment within a month, providing access to a mental health professional in every school.