12.11.15
Mental health trusts will struggle to survive alone
Mental health trusts will struggle to survive if they remain in their standalone form, John Short, CEO at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) has warned.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the NHS Providers Annual Conference yesterday (11 November), Short stated that partnership working will be not just important but vital for survival.
He argued that acute mental health services are needed at scale, but this can be very challenging when it comes under the remit of multiple commissioners.
He said: “I don’t think mental health trusts will survive if they standalone. A standalone trust is at the beck and call of commissioners who sometimes know what they are talking about and sometimes don’t. This can only lead in one direction.”
This has already been shown to be true this month with the news that Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust has had to admit to its local authority’s Health Scrutiny Committee that it is “no longer viable due to its financial challenges”.
Proposals put to the committee included delivering £1.5m worth of savings by retracting a range of services, including community-based therapies. However, the trust still has a financial gap of £2.3m to address.
The trust is now working with the NHS Trust Development Authority to find the “most sustainable organisation form to ensure the continuation of mental health services provided by the trust within Manchester”.
It is expected that what will replace it, likely a merger with a neighbouring trust, is to be discussed at NHS TDA’s next board meeting on 19 November.
Short’s own trust, BSMHFT, was recently named – in the third wave of acute Vanguards – as one of four mental health trusts in the West Midlands to come together in a healthcare alliance to transform how acute services are provided.
The Mental Health Alliance for Excellence, Resilience, Innovation and Training (MERIT), comprises BSMHFT, Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
The alliance will focus on where it can rapidly improve quality and efficiency, spread best practice and reduce variations in cost by integrating across geographical and organisational boundaries.
“We are going to concentrate, over the next two years, at getting the consistent delivery of care in acute services across the patch, across a population of 3.4 million people,” said Short.