Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Public Health, commenting on a Health Service Journal survey of NHS Mental Health Trusts, said:

“This appalling picture shows just how badly the Government is failing on mental health.

“On David Cameron’s watch, mental health services have been squeezed with the number of specialist mental health doctors and nurses falling while more vulnerable patients are having to travel hundreds of miles to get a bed.

“It is the Government’s responsibility to ensure the right services are in place for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, but the system is failing people with mental illness. Rather than watching from the sidelines, Ministers must urgently get to grips with this crisis in our mental health services.”