If you ask most people how the crisis in the NHS has had an impact on their lives, they will recount stories of a horrifying 12-hour wait in A&E, a cancelled operation or a delayed cancer diagnosis. Politicians know this: it explains the obsessive focus on the waiting list or guaranteeing a quick GP appointment.
The decline in NHS mental health services has been more subtle, but just as devastating. Last year, the NHS Confederation warned that mental health care in England had become a “national emergency” amid a post-Covid surge in people needing help. We have become a country where millions suffer in silence, with many abandoning hope of treatment.
