Metropolitan Police to Withdraw from Mental Health Emergency Calls

The force is implementing a new scheme called Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) and plans to withdraw from health-related calls by 31 August.

Rowley claims that police officers are being diverted from their core role of fighting crime and that patients who need medical experts are being failed.

He believes the move is necessary and urgent due to the pressure on police and health services caused by cuts and stretched mental health services.

The Met is Britain's largest police force and the letter cites data from a national police study that says officers spend almost a million hours a year waiting in hospitals for mental health patients to be assessed.

The plan could cause consternation among ambulance workers, paramedics, and NHS staff.

The Metropolitan Police Service (Met) is launching a new initiative called the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) scheme, which aims to provide support for vulnerable people from the right organization until help arrives.

The initiative has allowed the Met to reclaim 7% of officer time for crime-fighting and prevention.

However, health chiefs argue that austerity measures have left them short of resources to cope with the demands for mental health services, leading to the police effectively becoming a makeshift mental health service.

The initiative is expected to have a knock-on effect on ambulance workers, paramedics, and NHS staff.

The Met believes that health services should take primacy for caring for the mentally ill, allowing officers to focus on their core responsibilities to prevent and detect crime, and keep communities safe and support victims.

The Met's Commissioner, Cressida Dick, has previously riled other authorities, such as Max Hill, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, by accusing it of "cherry-picking" easier cases to improve its conviction rate.