A recent study has found that people suffering with mental health problems in England are five times as likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency than individuals who do not. The Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation said that the majority of these admissions were actually for physical problems, with only 20% of admissions being explicitly linked to mental health. The researchers that compiled the study said that the findings imply that the NHS is too often treating mental health conditions in isolation.

The Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation’s think tanks gathered information from more than 100 million hospital records between 2009-10 and 2013-14, (for both people with and without mental health issues). In the final year of this study, for every 1,000 people with mental health problems there were 628 emergency admissions. This figure compares to the 129 emergency admissions for those people without mental health problems.

“raises serious questions”

The study also looked at A&E admissions, which found that visits of those with mental health problems were three times more than those without. The figures showed over 1,300 attendances for every 1,000 patients with psychological issues. The researchers stated that many of these admissions could have been prevented with better available care.

Report author Holly Dorning said: “This raises serious questions about how well their other health concerns are being managed. It is clear that if we continue to treat mental health in isolation, we will miss essential care needs for these patients.”

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