Are bed shortages forcing psychiatrists to find reasons to turn patients away?

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By Erin Dean

As a coroner raises the alarm about doctors imposing "artificially" high standards for psychiatric admissions, many in the field despair at the perverse incentives shaping these decisions.

A coroner has urgently warned that doctors are becoming “hardened” by the ongoing shortage of mental health beds, leading to them raise the threshold for admittance beyond what is necessary or appropriate.

But psychiatrists say that the main problem is a mental health system beyond capacity – leaving them facing impossible decisions. Medics who spoke to Doctors.net.uk shared their anguish and spoke about the difficulties in accessing beds for those who need them.

It has become “almost impossible” to admit patients who haven’t been sectioned

One consultant psychiatrist working in an emergency department recently handed in his notice due to frustration over being unable to offer the care he wants, while another says it has become “almost impossible” to admit patients who haven’t been sectioned.