16.10.13
NHS director warns of ‘unsafe’ mental health system
Mental health services are in crisis, a new investigation has found.
Freedom of Information requests showed that 1,711 mental health beds have been closed since April 2011 – a 9% reduction in the total number since 2011/12. Three-quarters of closures took place in acute adult wards, older people’s wards and psychiatric intensive care units.
The average occupancy levels in acute adults and psychiatric beds is running at 100%, according to FoI requests from 28 trusts. The investigation was led by BBC News and Community Care magazine.
Dr Martin Baggaley, medical director of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust told the BBC: “We are in a real crisis at the moment. I think currently the system is inefficient, unsafe. We're certainly feeling it on the front line, it's very pressured, and we spend a lot of our time struggling to find beds, sending people across the country which is really not what I want to do.”
He said a lack of available beds in London led to patients being sent away to other areas, or in the extreme and tragic case of Mandy Peck, to her suicide.
Care minister Norman Lamb said: “Current levels of access to mental health treatment are unacceptable. There is an institutional bias in the NHS against mental health and I am determined to end this.
“More people are being treated in the right settings for them, including fewer people needing to go into hospitals. It is essential that people get the treatment they need early and in the community but beds must be available if patients need them.”
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