Approximately 500 patients with serious mental health problems are being forced to stay in NHS facilities more than 60 miles from home, new analysis reveals.

The figure is more than double that of the same month three years ago, and comes amid a bed shortage and staffing crisis.

The data also reveals that the amount of time mental health patients are spending away from home is going up, with three times as many projected to spend the whole of December in a so-called out-of-area placement compared to 2016.

Meanwhile more than 50 mental health patients are predicted to spend Christmas nearly 200 miles from home, forcing loved-ones to undertake eight-hour round trips for visits.

Approximately nine out of ten such placements - defined as being outside the local network of services - are deemed inappropriate by the NHS, which spends around £2.5 million a week funding them.

Thomas Stephens, health policy analyst at Incisive Health, which conducted the research, said: “For three Christmases in a row, bed shortages and staffing pressures have seen a steady rise in out-of-area placements.

“If current trends continue, this Christmas will be the worst on record, with unprecedented numbers placed in inpatient units hundreds of kilometres away from their loved ones.