A frustrated Met police officer has live-tweeted their six-hour battle to find an available mental health bed in London for a man who was a “danger to himself”.
In the extraordinary sequence of messages, the unidentified officer said they were "ringing every mental health unit in Greater London" but were struggling to get the man admitted as “no-one seems interested in helping”.
They took to twitter on Saturday to hit out at mental health cuts and expose the difficulty faced by police in getting proper care for patients, due to a scarcity of beds in London.
The sergeant, tweeting from the official account for Lewisham police (@MPSLewisham), said officers had sectioned the man under the Mental Health Act after finding him having a “crisis” in the street.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Officers have sectioned a male as he is a danger to himself & there are no beds at any secure unit in South East London, enq cont.... <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SgtD?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3174731-https://twitter.com/hashtag/SgtD?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#SgtD</a> — Lewisham MPS (@MPSLewisham) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/MPSLewisham/status/696008359632379904" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3174731-https://twitter.com/MPSLewisham/status/696008359632379904" data-vars-event-id="c23">February 6, 2016</a>
They said: "Officers have sectioned a male as he is a danger to himself and there are no beds at any secure unit in south-east London.
“No space anywhere in the south. No-one seems interested in helping, officers and I are ringing every mental health unit in Greater London.”
They continued to tweet over the course of the afternoon and evening, saying they were being rebuffed by a number of facilities.
“We have a direct number for the south-east bed manager but on this occasion not very helpful,” they wrote.
“A unit remaining nameless in north London refused as the subject is too far away.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Still trying, I got numbers of every unit. A unit remaining nameless in <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://t.co/9IjgJoM5v8" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3174731-https://t.co/9IjgJoM5v8" data-vars-event-id="c23">https://t.co/9IjgJoM5v8</a> refused as the subject is too far away <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SgtD?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3174731-https://twitter.com/hashtag/SgtD?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#SgtD</a> — Lewisham MPS (@MPSLewisham) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/MPSLewisham/status/696026099378216960" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3174731-https://twitter.com/MPSLewisham/status/696026099378216960" data-vars-event-id="c23">February 6, 2016</a>
The messages were accompanied with the hashtag #CutshaveConsequences.
After more than three hours, the officer said they had “at long last” found somewhere other than a police station to take the man, so he could receive the proper care.
However, they then faced a wait of several more hours outside the facility before the man could be admitted.
“Still no happy ending in sight, officers are sat with the subject outside the unit and won’t be admitted till after 9pm,” they wrote.
It was not until 9.45pm, apparently more than six hours later, that officers and London Ambulance Service staff were able to leave after the man was admitted.
The sergeant said it was "totally unacceptable" that the man had to wait six hours, before eventually posting: "Finally the subject has been admitted and all officers and @Ldn_Ambulance staff are leaving."
