12.09.12
Addressing mental health underspend could cut physical health costs
Reversing the current underspending on mental health services by NHS commissioners could end up saving far more, according to leading health professionals and health economists.
In a letter to CCGs and new health secretary Jeremy Hunt, Professor Lord Richard Layard, Professor Clare Gerada and Professor Simon Wessely argue that people with untreated depression and anxiety disorders are costing the NHS in England £10bn extra in physical healthcare, compared with other people with equally severe physical problems, blighting over 2 million lives.
By providing proper psychological therapy services, the NHS could save at least half a billion pounds a year on physical healthcare, they say.
Commissioners should give top priority to the expansion of Improved Access to Psychological Therapies services, which now only cover only 10% of people with diagnosable depression and anxiety disorders.
If 25% of need was covered, the £0.3bn cost would be wiped out by the £0.5bn savings in physical healthcare, they calculate.
“By doing the right thing for people, the NHS would actually save money,” they say.
The letter is based on the report from the LSE Centre for Economic Performance on ‘How Mental Health loses out in the NHS’, debated at a private meeting of the Foundation for Science and Technology on last night.
Visit www.foundation.org.uk for more on the meeting, and http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/special/cepsp26.pdf to see the full report.
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