Children in mental health crisis waiting up to three days in A&E for specialist bed in England

Nurses’ union criticises ‘catastrophic system-wide failure’ in NHS as more under-18s getting stuck in emergency wards

Children and young people in England having a mental health crisis are spending up to three days in an A&E unit before they get a bed in a specialist unit, NHS figures reveal.

One children’s nurse who works in an emergency department said such long waits for under-18s who were in acute distress were “frankly barbaric” but “becoming far more normal”.