Mental health care 'being rationed' over failure to slash spiralling waiting lists

Mental health care is being rationed because the government is failing to tackle the soaring waiting list, the UK’s top psychiatrist has warned, with 48,000 people facing delays of more than two years for treatment to start.

- REBECCA THOMAS HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

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 countrywide 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 that 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 health care 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 we’ve got 1.7 million people who were waiting for mental health services. They are not being prioritised and so there is rationing of mental health care, 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.

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