The annual cost to the NHS to treat children and young people experiencing a mental health crisis in specialised acute hospital wards in England quadrupled to £87.5 million between 2012 and 2022, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.
The study, published in BMJ Open, analysed data on all admissions of five- to 18-year-olds to general acute medical wards in acute NHS trusts in England from April 1st 2012 to March 31st 2022 gleaned from NHS Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data.
General acute medical wards are specialised hospital wards designed to provide rapid assessment, treatment, and care for patients. These units serve as a bridge between the emergency department, general practitioners, and other hospital wards but are designed primarily for short stays and do not provide specialist mental health services. Examples of specialist mental health services include eating disorder units.
Children and young people are most commonly admitted to general wards from Accident and Emergency because they are too unwell to go home, or it is not safe for them there.
The researchers had previously reported that the number of children and young people being admitted to these wards in England because of a mental health concern had increased 65 per cent over the decade they studied (2012-2022).
They have now calculated the cost of that rise in admissions and found it went up from £22.5 million in 2012 to £87.5 million in 2022.
Part of the reason for this rise, they said, was a surge in the annual number of admissions for eating disorders – up by 515% from 478 in 2012 to 2,938 in 2022.
The researchers said longer hospital stays also accounted for much of the rising cost.
Senior author, Dr Lee Hudson (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital) said: “Hospitals appear to be absorbing the cost of the country’s mental health crisis, despite not always being set up to manage them.
“Acute medical wards are important places for caring for young people with mental health concerns – especially those with co-existing physical health problems like starvation from an eating disorder.
“But they may not be set up with an appropriate ward environment to provide this care and sometimes staff working there need more training and support with relevant skills.”
In England, the NHS care for children experiencing mental health difficulties is provided by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
In their report, which was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the researchers show that referrals to CAMHS more than doubled between 2017 and 2022.
However, they add that while investment in children and young people’s mental health services increased over that period, the high level of demand meant they couldn’t treat many children and young people who instead needed to be admitted to acute medical services for care.
They are calling for greater investment in community-based services and early intervention.
The admissions are driven by both increased demand and high levels of risk.
These are children who are so ill because of their mental health that they can’t be at home. We found increased admissions for self-harm, and also more eating disorder admissions which tend to last longer.”
Dr. Lee Hudson, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital
Building on their study published last year, this is the first time national trends in mental health admissions of children and young people to acute medical wards in England have been costed.
The researchers worked out those costs using the National Cost Collection (NCC) database, which is the official source of costing data for NHS activity in England.
NHS services are priced using a system based on ‘currencies’ – units of payment specific to healthcare services which represent a complete ‘spell of care’ from admission to discharge.
For hospital admissions and Accident and Emergency Services, there are more than 2,800 currencies relating to around 26,000 specific diagnoses and treatments.
The researchers worked out the cost of each child and young person’s mental healthcare admission by matching the HES and NCC data.
As the study looked at admissions of up to 18 years of age, the acute medical wards included both children’s wards and adult wards. It also looked at acute NHS hospitals in England (so did not cover the whole of the UK, or specialist hospitals without acute trust set-ups such as Great Ormond Street Hospital).
The study was supported by the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre.
Source:
Journal reference:
Pilvar, H., et al. (2026). Cost of emergency hospital admissions to acute general wards for mental health problems among children and young people in England, 2012–2022: a retrospective observational study. BMJ Open. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-107143. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/5/e107143.full