Wigan hospital did not have a mental health patient who ‘waited 860 hours at A&E' say health chiefs after Labour report probe

Figures obtained by the Labour Party through Freedom of Information requests show patients across England waited for more than 5.4m hours in A&E while experiencing a mental health crisis last year.

And one figure stood out because it looked like someone had waited for a colossal 860 hours at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL).

But since the original report was published, WWL has put out a statement admitting that the FOI information was wrong and that the patient in question absconded from hospital during that period, returning weeks later finally to be discharged.

Silas Nicholls, Chief Executive of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) said: “We responded to an FOI in July 2023 asking for the single longest amount of time, in hours, that an individual adult spent in A&E, where their chief complaint was mental health related, broken down by financial year, since 2010, by breaking down each year’s longest wait into minutes.

“Our longest wait was reported in the FOI as 51,597 minutes in 2022/23. Following investigation, the trust has established that this information was incorrect and related to an individual who attended A&E and subsequently absconded on the same day.

"They re-attended A&E the following month and were ultimately discharged that day.

“Therefore, the FOI information is incorrect.”

But in other examples Labour said a patient at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust waited 496 hours (21 days) in a mental health crisis, while someone at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust waited 278 hours (12 days).

Among child patients, James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Norfolk had the longest wait at 208 hours (nine days), Labour said, followed by University Hospital Southampton at 198 hours, and Epsom and St Helier at 150 hours.

Shadow mental health minister Rosena Allin-Khan said: “These long, inappropriate waits in A&E are shocking. Patients have borne the brunt of the Conservative Government’s failure to bring down waiting lists.

“The Government should focus on improving services for patients. Instead, they have scrapped their 10-year mental health plan and are dragging their feet on reforming the Mental Health Act.

“Labour stands ready with a plan to recruit 8,500 additional mental health staff to drive down waiting lists, funded through closing tax loopholes.”

The party gathered information about the longest waiting times for patients since 2010, as well as the total duration patients spent waiting in A&E during 2022/23.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We’re going further and faster to transform our country’s mental health services, with up to an additional £2.3 billion being invested annually until 2024 to expand services.

“As a result, more children and young people than ever are getting the treatment they need. We’re investing record sums of funding to boost children’s mental health support, and we’re extending coverage of mental health support teams to at least 50 per cent of pupils in England by the end of March 2025.

“The mental health workforce also continues to grow to help cut waiting lists – one of this Government’s top five priorities.”