Police Driving Mental Health Patients To Hospital In 48% Of All Crisis Cases

A shortage of ambulances means cash-strapped police forces had to take mental health patients to hospital in almost half of all crisis cases. 

The Mental Health Code of Practice says a patient in crisis should only ever be transferred to hospital by an NHS vehicle. 

But the government has revealed, after a parliamentary question by Labour, that in 48% of crisis cases last year a police car was the only option.

Overall, police transported mental health patients to medics in 52% of incidents where an emergency Section 136 order, of the Mental Health Act, was made.

Ministers also admitted that, despite police transporting 9,712 people in crisis, no assessment of how mental health patients have been affected by the experience has been ordered. 

It comes as police forces in England and Wales face their ninth consecutive year of budget cuts this year, having lost around 21,000 frontline officers since 2010. 

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary reported in November that forces had been left to “pick up the pieces of a broken mental health system” as well as tackle crime, with London’s Met Police, the UK’s largest force, taking a mental health every four minutes.