Failure to provide clinically indicated psychiatric admission
First to latest report 13 Dec 2013 — 24 Nov 2025
Reports that mention this concern
12
Times this concern has been raised
12
Stated actions linked to this concern
26
What this concern includes
Includes failures to consider, offer, arrange or provide psychiatric hospital admission when a person's mental state, risk, symptoms or clinical needs indicate that admission should be considered or provided, including failure to admit despite patient or family requests where admission is clinically indicated.
What is not included
Excludes general hospital-admission delays or bed-capacity shortages unless the assertion specifically concerns a clinically indicated psychiatric admission decision or provision.
Excludes failures in psychiatric assessment, treatment, observation, discharge or follow-up where psychiatric admission is not the deficient control.
Excludes refusals or non-admission decisions where the report does not identify that psychiatric admission was clinically indicated.
Excludes failures confined to referral or crisis-team access when the unsafe condition is not failure to offer or provide psychiatric admission.
Trends
Reports over time
Reports mentioning this concern, over time
Reports about this concern issued each year.
* 2026 is projected from reports observed to 7 Sep 2026.
Most frequent recipients
Most frequent recipients
Reports about this concern sent to each recipient.
Department of Health and Social Care5
NHS England5
NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board2
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust1
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust1
Birmingham City Council1
Care Quality Commission1
Epsom Hospital1
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust1
Health and Care Professions Council1
Health Services Safety Investigations Body1
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board1
NHS South West London Integrated Care Board1
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust1
North London NHS Foundation Trust1
NHS trust8
Executive non-departmental public body6
Ministerial department5
Integrated care board4
Education sector body1
English metropolitan district council1
Health and care professional regulator1
Health and social care service regulator1
Healthcare site1
Police force1
Private limited company1
Reports and published responses 12 reports
See individual reports that have raised this concern, and the actions taken in response
Inner North London
Concerns raised1
Failure to consider hospital admission for a patient presenting significant suicide risk
This report raised 6 other concerns. They are not shown here because they do not form part of this recurring concern.
Linked response
North London NHS Foundation Trust
Stated actions An action is something a respondent says it has done, is doing, or plans to do in response to the concern raised.1
North London NHS Foundation Trust
Implement measures across all Crisis Teams and Crisis Houses to address the identified concerns.
Manchester City
Concerns raised1
Delays in admission to an appropriate mental health bed
This report raised 8 other concerns. They are not shown here because they do not form part of this recurring concern.
Linked responses
Department of Health and Social Care
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Stated actions An action is something a respondent says it has done, is doing, or plans to do in response to the concern raised.6
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Maintain the changed inpatient-bed access process, under which service users requiring admission do not have a waiting list.
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Operate daily bed-management calls, weekly delayed-discharge teleconferences and weekly mental-health inpatient-capacity meetings with relevant partners.
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Purchase additional inpatient capacity in neighbouring NHS facilities and through the charitable sector.
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Monitor out-of-area placements and bed availability daily and weekly to support rapid allocation or repatriation and prevent unnecessary waiting.
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Review and maintain the escalation protocol enabling use of private-sector beds when Trust capacity is unavailable.
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Implement the inpatient capacity management plan to improve patient experience, bed flow and joint working across stakeholder organisations.
Respondent positions A position is what a respondent says about the concern when they do not describe a specific action.4
Department of Health and Social Care
Acute beds should already be available without waiting for patients clinically deemed to need them.
Existing arrangements considered sufficientThe respondent said that existing arrangements were sufficient, so no further action was needed.
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
The Trust disputes that inpatient bed availability creates a local waiting-list risk, stating that its revised access arrangements left no service users awaiting admission.
Disputes the concernThe respondent disagreed with part of the concern or the basis for it.
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Decisions about admitting and discharging mental health patients rest with the provider NHS Trust, not the commissioning organisation.
Redirects responsibilityThe respondent said that another organisation was responsible for deciding or taking action.
NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board
Existing escalation, monitoring and capacity-management arrangements are considered appropriate and robust for managing inpatient bed availability and out-of-area placements.
Existing arrangements considered sufficientThe respondent said that existing arrangements were sufficient, so no further action was needed.
Actions and positions describe what organisations say in published responses. Implementation is not independently verified.
Actions and positions describe what organisations say in published responses. Implementation is not independently verified.