The government is under fire for breaking a key pledge on mental health after latest statistics showed that hundreds of patients are being sent far from home every month because of a beds crisis.

Ministers has pledged to end ‘inappropriate’ out-of-area placements in mental health for adults in England by April 2021, but data indicates that 695 people were sent out of area in April.

The figure includes ‘inappropriate’ placements and those deemed ‘appropriate’ because the patient needed specialist psychological or psychiatric help that is only available in a few units. A large majority of placements have always been ‘inappropriate’ because they are caused by a lack of beds.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has warned that out-of-area placements are ‘disastrous’ for patients and their families, and has said that it is ‘extremely disappointing that the target for eliminating inappropriate out of area placements hasn’t been met’.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, obtained the figures from the Department of Health and Social Care in a parliamentary question. He criticised the government for failing to end a practice which psychiatrists and mental health charities say is a scandal that is ‘harmful and destructive’ for vulnerable people in a mental health crisis and makes it harder for them to see their loved ones.