MEDICAL professionals slammed the “unhelpful” Metropolitan Police decision to turn down mental health calls today.

Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has written to health and social care services to say London coppers will no longer attend after August 31 unless there is a threat to life.

He said it would free up officers to spend time on their core roles rather than dealing with patients in need of expert medical help.

Police forces have repeatedly come under fire for deaths of people suffering from mental health crises during their arrests or while in custody.

Royal College of Psychiatrists president Dr Adrian James said the NHS does not currently have the “resources that will be necessary to plug those gaps.”

He added: “We also have a workforce crisis in the health service. We can’t just pluck new members of staff from nowhere.

“[Sir Mark] has obviously decided unilaterally that the Met are going to go it alone. And I think that’s unhelpful.”

Mind chief executive Sarah Hughes expressed similar worries, calling on the NHS and the Met to “urgently” sit down and work out a plan.