The number of people spending time in an NHS mental health hospital increased for the first time in five years in 2009/10 to 107,765, according to new figures from The NHS Information Centre.

They show the rise was due to an increase of 30.1 per cent⁴ in the number of people being detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act (MHA) - from 32,649 in 2008/09 to 42,479 in 2009/10.

As a percentage of patients in NHS mental health hospitals, those who were compulsorily detained under the MHA rose to nearly 39.4 per cent in 2009/2010 – up 7.6 percentage points from 2008/09.

As the number of those detained in hospital via the criminal justice system also continued to rise, the figures suggest NHS mental health hospitals are increasingly being used to care for patients who are a risk to themselves or others.

The Mental Health Bulletin 2009/10 shows:

• Over 1.25 million people were recorded as using NHS specialist mental health services in the year – the highest number since the data collection began in 2003/04 and a 4.0 per cent increase from 2008/09. Of these people 8.5 per cent spent time in hospital.
• The number of people who were admitted to hospital for care rose by 5.1 per cent - the first increase since 2004/05.
• The average number of days spent in hospital during the year per patient was 68 days for women and 78 days for men.
• The number of women detained under the MHA who came into hospital via prison or the courts was 830, an estimated rise of more than 85 per cent. The number of men in this category rose by 48 per cent from 1,982 to 2,935.

Data for the bulletin comes from the Mental Health Minimum Dataset annual returns and is accompanied by national and organisation-level data tables as well as low level aggregate mental health activity data which is available at www.data.gov.uk.

The NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “This report is accompanied by the largest release of information ever about NHS mental health services and will be a source of huge interest to those developing services on the ground.

“It shows more people are being treated by NHS specialist mental health services and that more than 90 per cent of these patients receive care outside of hospital. “Interestingly, the number of patients being admitted has risen for the first time in five years and the figures show the composition of patients receiving care in hospital is shifting, with a small but growing proportion coming from a prison or court setting.”

The full bulletin is at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/mhbmhmds0910.

ENDS

Notes to editors.

1. The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
2. The Mental Health Minimum Dataset MHMDS includes data about NHS specialist mental health services for adults of working age and over 65. These are services which are part of secondary care and do not include the services delivered in primary care (for example at GP surgeries) or mental health services specifically for children and young people.
3. Some elements of this publication have been labelled “experimental statistics”, which are new official statistics that are under going evaluation. A key part of the “Experimental Statistics” label is user engagement in the evaluation of those statistics, and the NHS IC invites readers to comment on this publication, which will help inform the next report. Comments may be sent to enquiries@ic.nhs.uk.
4. Part of the recorded increase in mental health hospital detentions was due to improved data submissions by NHS trusts between 2008/09 and 2009/10; as a small number of trusts failed to submit this data in 2008/09. On a like for like basis, excluding the data for trusts that failed to return information in 2008/09, there was an increase of 17.5 per cent in the number of people being detained under the Mental Health Act - from 32,649 to 38,369. Further information on data quality for 2008/09 can be found in the Data Quality and Methodology document that accompanied the 2008/09 release.
5. The number of women detained under the MHA who came into hospital via prison or the courts rose from 394 in 2008/09 to 830 in 2009/10. Ninety five of these were detained in hospitals which failed to provide information on legal status in the appropriate format in 2008/09. However, even if these are discounted from the calculation, the number of women detained via the Criminal Justice System this year still rose by 86.5 per cent since 2008/09.
6. For media enquiries please call 0845 257 6990.