The NHS is paying £2 billion a year to private hospitals to care for mental health patients because it does not have enough of its own beds.

According to the Guardian, the independent sector receives approximately 13.5 per cent of the £14.8 billion the NHS in England spends on mental health. Nine out of every 10 of the more than 10,000 mental health beds run by private operators are occupied by NHS patients.

There are concerns that there are ongoing problems with the quality and safety of care at many of the mental health units run by the independent care sector.

The Guardian says that 71 different psychiatric facilities run by non-NHS providers looking after adults or under-18s were found to be ‘inadequate’ since the start of 2017 – more than one in four of the total of 269 such units.

The research also shows that: independent mental health care providers now make 91 per cent of their income from the NHS; typical profit margins sit at between 15-20 per cent; and that the majority of inpatient care for under-18s is now outsourced, with independent operators looking after 55 per cent of all the children and young people who are hospitalised.

Paul Farmer, the chief executive of Mind, said: “While this use of private care providers is itself not concerning, the fact that some patients are being transferred to private providers halfway across the country, or indeed providers who have been deemed by the CQC to be delivering inadequate standards of care, is incredibly worrying, particularly as some of these referrals seem to have led to tragic and fatal consequences.”