Hertfordshire police officers ‘spend 1,000 hours a month waiting to hand patients to NHS’, says Police and Crime Commissioner Jonathan Ash-Edwards

Police officers in Hertfordshire are spending more than 1,000 hours a month “looking after” residents who are in “crisis” because they are unable to hand them over to NHS staff.

The county’s police and crime commissioner, Jonathan Ash-Edwards, revealed the impact on the police service at a meeting of the Hertfordshire Growth Board.

He referenced the relatively low number of mental health beds in the county compared to “many other comparable counties”.

And he said police officers in the county were spending 1,000 hours every month looking after those in crisis “because the NHS isn’t able to take the handover”.

“We need to try and drive that figure down,” said Mr Ash-Edwards. “But that is directly linked to capacity in the system.”

The PCC made the remarks as part of a discussion on the growth board’s ‘Healthy and Safe Places for All Mission’, which was led by Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (HWEICB) chair Paul Burstow.

In response to the commissioner’s concerns, Mr Burstow highlighted ongoing work in this area, including provision of a new mental health crisis hub.

“Quite a bit of work has been done over the last six to nine months to invest at the Lister [Hospital in Stevenage] to provide a new mental health crisis hub,” he said.

“That has already had a very material impact on mental health presentations into A&E departments, which is good for the individual – but also good for the staff and good for the patients – but also I think helps with some of the needs that our colleagues in the police service have as well.”

At the end of the exchange Mr Burstow said he would be happy to discuss with the commissioner what else was needed, away from the meeting.

Outlining his concerns to the Local Democracy Reporting Service following the meeting, Mr Ash-Edwards said he had looked at the impact that delays in the handover of mental health patients to the NHS was having on policing at his accountability and performance meeting in December.

“Progress has been made through partnership working between the NHS and [Hertfordshire] Constabulary, but significant amounts of police officer time is still used waiting for handover in emergency departments,” he said.

“In the last six months of last year, this averaged around 1,000 police officer hours a month.

“For someone in mental health crisis, a police response is often not appropriate, and delays handing over to health professionals take front-line officers away from dealing with crime and being visible in communities.

“One of the causes of the challenges is the low number of specialist mental health beds in Hertfordshire, which is why it’s important that the provision of additional mental health bed capacity is included in future infrastructure planning.”

Over the past 12 months Hertfordshire Constabulary – in line with forces across the country – has moved towards a ‘Right Care Right Person’ approach. This is designed to ensure vulnerable people receive the right specialist health support they need, reducing the number of health-related incidents that require police attendance.

Officials at HWEICB point to a number of changes that have been made in the county – but recognise this is still not reducing the amount of police time quickly enough.

In a statement, HWEICB deputy chief executive Beverley Flowers said: “Everyone in a mental health crisis deserves to have the support they need delivered compassionately by those who are most appropriately skilled and trained to provide it.

“The ‘Right Care, Right Person’ approach recognises that the police are not always the most appropriate agency to respond when someone is in mental health crisis, although the support they provide, often in difficult circumstances, is invaluable.

“Police colleagues have continued to work closely with health partners on implementing the changes that need to be made and we have improved our joint ways of working, but recognise this is still not reducing the amount of police time quickly enough.

“Mental health staff continue to work closely with the police, including in jointly staffed ‘street triage’ teams, and support people to access help in other ways, such as ‘crisis cafés’, which offer advice and support to people with an urgent mental health need.

“Since the introduction of Right Care, Right Person, we have increased the capacity of the Mental Health Urgent Care Centre at the Lister Hospital, added more mental health support in emergency departments at peak times and funded the extended opening of ‘crisis houses’.

“More than 700 people were supported by the Mental Health Urgent Care Centre during its phased opening in January 2024 until the end of December.

“More than 80 per cent of people using the service did not need to be admitted to hospital and were supported to return home or on to other help.

“Now the urgent care centre is fully open, people can walk in to the service directly and get help without a referral.

“We are also in the process of getting three new mental health response vehicles on the road across Hertfordshire and West Essex to respond quickly when someone is in crisis.

“Hertfordshire does have fewer NHS mental health inpatient beds than similar-sized areas. As we haven’t yet been able to secure the funding needed to build another NHS mental health inpatient unit, we commission additional inpatient beds from local independent providers.

“In addition, we use inpatient beds outside our immediate area when that’s necessary in order to meet patients’ needs.

“We continue to work hard to increase the mental health help available locally for our residents and are exploring options to create an additional place of safety for people whose mental health needs to be assessed under the Mental Health Act.

“This would help to ease pressure on both the police and our accident and emergency units.”