12.10.16
NHS Digital instructed to collect out-of-area placements data for first time
Mental health patients’ out-of-area placements will be recorded by NHS Digital for the first time as part of a government strategy to eliminate the problem.
Emily Antcliffe, deputy director of mental health policy and strategy at the Department of Health, wrote to Andy Williams, the chief executive of NHS Digital, directing him to collect the information.
Out-of-area placements are defined as where an acute adult psychiatric patient is admitted to inpatient services outside the catchment area of their local services and where their usual care co-ordinator cannot visit them regularly.
The government has committed to eliminating the placements as part of its promised reforms after the mental health taskforce found widespread failures in services.
NHS England has also granted £1.8m for six areas to pilot measures to end out–of-area placements.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, the department instructed NHS Digital to collect information on adult patients at a provider and CCG level, including reasons for admission and administrative and diagnostic information.
The direction came into force on 10 October, and the data will be published every month for a year, subject to regulations on anonymising data.
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