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By Nichola Groom and Valerie Volcovici (Reuters) -U.S. power plant owners warned the Biden administration on Tuesday that its sweeping

Mental health patients have been left languishing in hospitals for years due to a chronic shortage in community care, as the number of people trapped on wards hits a record high, The Independent can reveal. Analysis shows 3,213 patients were stuck on units for more than three months last year, including 325 children kept in adult units. Of those a “deeply concerning” number have been deemed well enough to leave but have nowhere to go. One of these cases was Ben Craig, 34, who says he was left “scarred” after being stranded on a ward for two years – despite being fit enough to leave – because two councils fought over who should pay for his supported housing. He missed his daughter's birth and didn’t meet her until she was two months old while waiting to be discharged, which only exacerbated his depression. He told The Independent: “I was promised I was going to be moving on, but it just seemed like it went on forever.” The average stay for patients in low-security hospitals was 833 days in 2022-23. The NHS does not collect data on how long people are waiting to be discharged, but mental health charity Mind said Mr Craig’s case was far from unique. Leaked reports, obtained by The Independent, also reveal NHS community services are struggling to see patients, while the NHS is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to house those who could be discharged. Documents for 2022-23 obtained and analysed by The Independent reveal: Adult mental health beds cost the NHS between £500 and £1,000 a day, compared to £5,000 per patient per year for community care One in five referrals for community care was rejected as the NHS battles a 12 per cent staff vacancy rate Patients waited 13 weeks on average to see a community mental health worker, but some waited up to 60 weeks The 3,213 patients stuck for more than three months was an increase of 639 on the year before and an all-time high, according to an analysis of NHS data In August, 10 per cent of patients were waiting 221 days to start community treatment One in 10 patients under a community mental health team did not see a healthcare worker for a year Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive for NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, told The Independent mental health patients stuck in hospitals were experiencing “personal distress” and getting ill again while they wait. She called on the government to put mental health on an “equal foot” to physical care and said not doing so suggested the government was content not to treat all patients equally. One senior NHS source said long stays in mental health units had become “normalised” and patients were becoming institutionalised. “These 60 and 90 [days] stayers are just being medicated and drifting. They’re adjusting meds to stabilise the person ... These long-stays people can get completely dependent, they lose contact with the world [and] their life, They’re terrible for people,” they said. ‘Robbed’ Mr Craig was admitted to Prestwich Hospital in September 2019 with psychosis from prison after his mental health deteriorated and he began hearing voices. In 2020 he was told by doctors he was well enough to be discharged home after his sentence ended. However, he then had two years of his life “robbed” as two councils rowed over who should fund the mental health hostel he needed to be discharged into to support his recovery. He was eventually discharged into supported living in September 2022 where he still receives mental health support. Mr Craig, who now lives in Manchester, told The Independent: “I was very depressed, I am still not over it properly yet. When I was there, I just didn’t want to go out or anything, so just stayed in my bed all the time. “I missed my daughter’s birth, and I didn’t see her until she was two months old ... it’s left me scarred.” Even when he was finally discharged into supported living accommodation he says the community mental health team had “no input” into his care and says he was still struggling to get in contact with his community service team. Rheian Davies, head of Mind’s legal unit, told The Independent that cases like Mr Craig’s showed councils were failing in their legal duty to fund mental health support in the community. She said the charity had seen patients with longer discharge delays than Mr Craig’s due to this problem. “It’s deeply concerning that people are finding themselves stuck in hospital, their lives on hold, due to a lack of supported housing,” she said. “Delays in leaving hospital cause uncertainty and anxiety that can hamper or even reverse recovery. “This takes a huge emotional toll on the person and their loved ones, but the delay in discharge also means there are fewer beds available for people experiencing mental health crises.” She added that patients “deserve much better than being held indefinitely in hospital settings when they are well enough to return to the community”. Ms Davies said: “This case [Mr Craig’s] is a real opportunity to reduce the delays and hurdles caused by a disjointed system.” Greater Manchester University Hospital said: “We work hard with all our system partners to ensure where patients are ready for discharge, they can do so as quickly as it is safe to do so.” Abena Oppong-Asare, Labour’s shadow mental health minister, said The Independent’s exposé showed NHS mental health services were “in crisis”. She added: “The Independent investigation reveals the appalling reality that patients are being left in hospital for months, when community care can be far more effective and less expensive for the NHS.” As part of its election manifesto pledges, Labour has promised to recruit 8,500 more mental health professionals, paid for through plans to abolish “tax loopholes for private equity fund managers and tax breaks for private schools”. The Department of Health and Social Care said in 2021-22 an additional £116m was invested in the NHS for mental health discharges and that it will have invested £1bn more in the sector by March 2024. An NHS England spokesperson said: “There is no doubt mental health services are under significant pressure, with the NHS treating record numbers of young people and community crisis services seeing a 30 per cent increase in referrals compared to before the pandemic, and NHS urgent and emergency care also treating record numbers.” Read More Friends target rowing world record to raise awareness of mental health challenge Women in mental health crisis being jailed in prisons deemed ‘unfit for purpose’ Suspect in fatal Hawaii nurse stabbing pleaded guilty last year to assaulting mental health worker The Priory hospital fined £140k after woman dies on ‘utter shambles’ ward Dumped in A&E and left untreated for 5 days: Shameful plight of vulnerable patients Anger over Tory minister’s ‘disgraceful’ Scotland heroin jibe

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A Russian missile attack on a pizza restaurant in the eastern city of Kramatorsk has killed at least 11 people, including three teenagers, and left more than 60 people injured. Authorities in the city have named 14-year-old twins, Yuliya and Anna Aksenchenko, as being among the dead. In a Telegram post, the city's council extended its condolences to the parents of the girls, saying that "a Russian rocket stopped the beating of the hearts of two angels". Another girl, aged 17, was also killed "We share the grief of your family and together with you we bow our heads in deep sorrow," the city council said. What happened in the attack? The Pizza RIA restaurant was popular with both locals, as well as aid workers and journalists – and was said to be crowded when it was hit on Tuesday evening. "I ran here after the explosion because I rented a cafe here.... Everything has been blown out there," said Valentyna, a 64-year-old woman who declined to give her surname. "None of the glass, windows or doors are left. All I see is destruction, fear and horror. This is the 21st century," she told Reuters. Police said around 60 people were injured in the strike, which turned the restaurant into a pile of twisted beams. Emergency services posted pictures online of rescue teams sifting through the site with cranes and other equipment. The Donetsk regional governor – the area where Kramatorsk is located – Pavlo Kyrylenko told national television that people were visible under the rubble. Their condition was unknown, he said, but "we are experienced in removing rubble". Video footage on military Telegram channels showed one man, his head bleeding, receiving first aid on the pavement. Eight people had been rescued alive from the rubble and at least three more were believed to be trapped, Veronika Bakha, the spokeswoman for the Donetsk region emergency services said. The attack also damaged 18 multi-story buildings, 65 houses, five schools, two kindergartens, a shopping center, an administrative building and a recreational building, the regional governor, Mr Kyrylenko, said. Why Kramatorsk? Russia has been keeping up an aerial assault across Ukraine for months. Kramatorsk is a major city west of the frontlines in Donetsk province, a key logistics hub. It would likely be a key objective in any Russian advance westward seeking to capture all of the region. The city has been a frequent target of Russian attacks, including a strike on the town's railway station in April 2022 that killed dozens. It was one of the worst single air strikes of the war. There were at least two strikes on apartment buildings and other civilian sites earlier this year. Officials initially blamed the strike in Kramatorsk on an S-300 missile, a surface-to-air weapon that Russia's forces have repurposed for loosely targeted strikes on cities, but the National Police later said Iskander short-range ballistic missiles were used. Russia denies targeting civilian sites in its invasion of Ukraine – which began in February 2022 – a claim rubbished by Ukrainian officials and Western allies of Kyiv. Kramatorsk's position in the Donetsk region, one of four Ukrainian provinces that Russia claimed to annex last September but does not fully control. Russia annexed the region of Crimea almost a decade ago. Ukrainian-held parts of the partially occupied provinces have been hit especially hard by Russian bombardment. The Kremlin demands that Kyiv recognize the annexations, while Kyiv has ruled out any talks with Russia until its troops pull back from all occupied territories. Kyiv recently launched a much-anticipated counteroffensive to take back occupied territory. What other strikes have there been in the last 24 hours? A second missile hit a village on the fringes of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, injuring five. A Russian missile also hit a cluster of buildings in Kremenchuk, about 230 miles west in central Ukraine, exactly a year after an attack on a shopping mall there that killed at least 20. No casualties were reported in the latest attack. On Wednesday morning, the head of the Kharkiv region said three civilians have been killed in Russian shelling. "Unfortunately, as a result of this shelling, three civilians in the village of Vovchanski Khutory were killed near their homes," governor Oleh Synehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app. What has been the Ukrainian response? On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities arrested Wednesday a man they accused of helping Russia direct the missile strike. The Security Service of Ukraine alleged in a message on Telegram that the man had filmed the restaurant for the Russians and informed them about its popularity. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in a statement: “The agent of the Russian Federation will definitely answer to the Ukrainian court. But his detention is also a signal to all other adjusters and traitors who work for the enemy. Remember – the punishment is inevitable!” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video message on Tuesday that the attacks showed that Russia "deserved only one thing as a consequence of what it has done – defeat and a tribunal". Ukraine has been pushing for a war crimes tribunal to deal with Russia's actions in Ukraine, and have been gathering evidence. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Twin sisters, aged 14, among at least 11 dead in Russian missile strike in Ukraine Cambodian leader Hun Sen, a huge Facebook fan, says he is jumping ship to Telegram Footage shows scale of destruction after Russian strike on Kramatorsk restaurant

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