Children and young people in England experiencing a mental health crisis are spending up to three days in an A&E unit before being admitted to a specialist facility, according to NHS figures.
One children's nurse described the long waits for under-18s in acute distress as "frankly barbaric" but "becoming far more normal." Staff are increasingly resorting to sedating patients to manage disruptive behavior.
Data from Freedom of Information requests by the Royal College of Nursing reveals the number of under-18s waiting at least 12 hours for a mental health bed has more than trebled, from 237 in 2019 to 802 in 2025.
Three NHS trusts-Barts Health and Lewisham and Greenwich in London, and Morecambe Bay in Cumbria-reported children waiting three days or more.
Prof Nicola Ranger, RCN chief executive, called it "a catastrophic system-wide failure." The RCN and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health urge faster rollout of mental health emergency units to keep children out of A&E.