Woman suffering mental health crisis left waiting eight days in A&E

18-year-old had to sleep in chair at St Helier hospital in Sutton as no beds were available in NHS facilities

• Dejected and desperate': ordeal of a mental health patient left in limbo

An 18-year-old woman suffering a mental health crisis was forced to wait eight-and-a-half days in A&E before getting a bed in a psychiatric hospital - believed to be the longest such wait seen in the NHS.

Louise (not her real name) had to be looked after by the police and security guards and sleep in a chair and on a mattress of the floor in the A&E at St Helier hospital in Sutton, south London, because no bed was available in a mental health facility.