Mental health patients being sent to "inhumane" hospital beds away from their families cost the NHS in the North East and Yorkshire a staggering £1.7m in March.
That's according to the latest figures released by NHS Digital - which also show that there were 3,060 "bed days" recorded in the region where a patient was sent "out of area". This comes as the Royal College of Psychiatrists called the failure to end the use of out of area placements "a scandal".
A report in 2016 from the independent Mental Health Taskforce to the NHS in England stated that by 2020/21 out-of-area placements would essentially be eliminated for acute mental health care for adults. This target has not been achieved.
