My hospital is full of people having a mental health crisis

I have spent a significant part of the past year working in an overstretched emergency department.

- A M M A D B U T T

I have been shocked at how many A&E patients I have seen present with mental health conditions. Often young and vulnerable, they attend with avariety of complex needs, none of which are easy for emergency teams to fix up, let alone properly fix.

Less surprising, but no more alarming, is that these patients have their issues exacerbated by the hospital setting, one that inherently is not suited to them, the very nature of emergency departments being loud, noisy and often full of chaos.

I sympathise with these patients who, often dealing with great turmoil in their lives and within themselves, have to wait for hours before being told that there is little to be done until they can be reviewed by the liaison psychiatry team.

At a time when such patients often wait more than 18 months to access appropriate treatment, the health secretary Wes Streeting ought not to be warning about the “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions.

If we were seeing an increase in patients with heart attacks, asthma exacerbations or arthritis, would we be referring to it as an “overdiagnosis”? I rather think we would be referring to it, rightly, as a crisis.