Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that patients presenting at A&E with a mental health emergency are treated with equal priority as patients with a physical health emergency.

We have committed through the NHS Long Term Plan and the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24 to ensure that all acute hospitals have an all-age mental health liaison service in place by 2020/21, with 50% of these meeting the ‘core 24’ standard for adults and older adults. This will increase to 70% by 2023/24 working towards 100% coverage thereafter.

This will ensure that people who present at accident and emergency departments with mental health needs will have access to appropriate mental health support.