MP: Fund mental health properly
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HALTON’S MP has called on the Government to fund mental health services properly after research found the trust offering treatment in the borough has suffered a yearon-year decline to its income in real terms.
North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is one of only nine mental health trusts in England to have experienced the drop, according to the Royal College Of Psychiatrists (RCOP).
The trust has experienced a fall from just under £165m in 2011-12 to around £155.3m in 2016-17 – a drop of 5.79% over five years.
Mental health trusts’ income is lower in England now than it was in 2011-12 once inflation is taken into account, according to the latest available figures, and shows services across the country have less money to spend on patient care in real terms than they did in 2012.
This is despite the Government’s assertion that mental health spending is at ‘record’ levels – according to Health And Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt – and comes as demand for services soars, with some trusts saying a lack of funds has forced them to cut services.
Halton MP Derek Twigg said: “I want the people of Halton to be able to get the best possible mental health treatment when they need it, and where they need it. I am calling on the Government to fund our mental health services properly.
“For our local mental health trust to have had their funding cut every year for five years goes completely against Government’s plans to properly fund mental health services.”
The RCOP is calling for mental health trusts to be given more money and for better ways of tracking where mental health money is being spent.
It fears some of that money is failing to ● reach the front line.
RCOP president Professor Wendy Burn said: “It is totally unacceptable that when more and more people are coming forward with mental health problems, services are receiving less investment than they did five years ago.
“Patients with mental illness continue to bear the brunt of an underfunded sector experiencing unprecedented demand with limited supply.
“Prioritisation of mental health is about getting the right care, at the right time, in the right place.
“This can’t happen when mental health services continue to receive inadequate investment.”
Mr Hunt has referred publicly to the extra £575m spent by clinical commissioning groups (CCG) in 2016-17 compared with the previous financial year.
But a spokeswoman for Mr Twigg’s office said it is up to the CCGs to pass money on to mental health trusts and other providers and the RCOP’s figures reveal that the latter’s income is still lower than it was in 2012.
The 2012 Health And Social Care Act changed the way mental health services are funded and trusts are only part of the picture, with money also distributed through GPs, councils, private providers and the voluntary sector.
The RCOP is calling for comprehensive spending data to be published regularly by all providers of publicly-funded mental health services.
North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust declined to comment when approached by the Weekly News.