THE father of a student who killed himself after being diagnosed with schizophrenia has called for a major rethink on emergency hospital admissions for mental health patients.

Gareth Papps, of Stillington, lost his son Ben, 24, in June 2009, after the promising student suffered a number of psychotic episodes, ending his university career.

Mr Papps wants to see a change in the way people like his son get help in an emergency. He said the current process of attending a hospital casualty departmentcan leads to waits of up to three hours for mental health patients.

He said: “Ben was a brilliant student; he got four A grade A-levels and won a place at Leeds University.

“He suffered his first psychotic episode in 2003 and we had to postpone his university place. When he took it up in 2004 he moved up from Essex, but had a second episode in 2005; after that he was on permanent medication and deteriorated during the last years of his life. I became his legal carer.”

Mr Papps, 62, said during this time his son was an outpatient at Bootham Hospital, yet when he had to be admitted in an emergency he was forced to attend A&E first.

He said: “People suffering from acute psychosis are frequently suicidal and may try their best to run away before specialist help arrives.

“Patients should be able to go to a desk, 24 hours a day a see a specialist; there’s no separate facility for mental health patients to undergo emergency admissions. The consequences can be dire.”

John Clare, associate director of Mental Health for NHS North Yorkshire and York, said: “We have an acute mental health service in place which is for people experiencing an acute mental health crisis.

“People access this service through a referral from either their care co-ordinator, a secondary care mental health provider, their GP, including the out-of hours, and the A&E department.

“This service is for people experiencing an acute mental health crisis and the majority of referrals do not come via A&E. It is a requirement that underlying physical causes to the crisis are ruled out and that the patient is not showing signs of being intoxicated or being a high risk of harm to others prior to the referral. This is to protect the patient and the staff and, as such, the team cannot accept self- referrals.”