MENTAL health chiefs expect the number of crisis-hit patients in Lancashire, needing urgent assistance, to have trebled by the end of this year.

And the number of patients turning up at accident and emergency departments countywide is forecast to increase by another 10 per cent, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust’s board has been told.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed last summer that police felt that they were being swamped by the volume of mental health patients they were having to regularly deal with.

Lancashire Care has now drawn up a mental health improvement plan - to ease the pressure on frontline services at their Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospital sites.

Their latest board meeting has heard that in 2014-15 there were 49 assessments required under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act, where patients are brought in by the emergency services and other agencies to a ‘place of safety’ for their own welfare, after suffering a mental health breakdown.

But so far this year there have been 597 such cases - with health bosses predicting this will reach 1,432 by the end of 2018-19.

The number ofA&E ward attendances, say Lancashire Care, requiring a mental health liaison worker, is expected to rise from 8,094 last year to a predicted 9,093 by next March.

Joanne Moore, operations director, said in board report: “The adult acute mental health services have been experiencing significant pressures and a surge in demand over recent months.”

She told colleagues this had led to a “large volume of patients” awaiting in-patient beds, which had led to a “high number” of these having to wait more than 12 hours for treatment.

Seven extra beds are set to be commissioned by the Priory, a private operator, on top of 15 already being provided.

An independent review of Lancashire’s provisions has also been sought from Northumbria,Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, focusing on the emergency care functions.

Trust leaders say they have contacted chief constable Andy Rhodes over the possibility of providing extra training for police officers.

Last summer Terry Woods, assistant chief constable of Lancashire Police, insisted police were unable to go out on the beat as they were being detained dealing with mental health cases.

Mr Woods said: ““On many occasions the police service is becoming the first service people reach out to respond to this.”