Gloucestershire: Mental health beds 'centralised'

In-patient services are being axed at three mental health units for elderly people in Gloucestershire, reports the BBC.

Beds at Weavers Croft in Stroud, Colliers Court in Cinderford and Holly House in Gloucester will be transferred to a centre in Cheltenham.

Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Trust claimed that the changes would provide patients with a higher quality of care. But the county council's health overview and scrutiny committee said the closures would badly affect relatives who would have to travel further to visit loved ones.

The Department of Health said that after carefully considering the IRP's review, it would be "difficult to sustain safe services in four inpatient units", recommending that arrangements should be made to facilitate travel and access to Charlton Lane.

The Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Trust announced last year that it would be cutting almost £10m from mental health services in the county.

Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper said he was "disappointed" with the decision.

"I am very concerned about the difficulty of transport and access to the services that my constituents will now face and the extra stress, worry and cost which will fall on patients, families and carers" he said.

Southwark: Ex-nurse warns over clinic closure

A former nurse has spoken out to defend a vital mental health clinic threatened with closure - reports icSouthLondon.

Ian Rawlins damned proposals to close the Felix Post Unit (FPU), which is a centre used by the elderly.

Mr Rawlins has spent 25 years working in the NHS, the past five as an associate nurse in the clinic in the Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill.

He left earlier this year and says he is appalled at moves to close the FPU.

"It's time to stand up," he said. "This would have a severe impact on these people, on their families and on their communities. I was shocked to hear a senior manager at one meeting talk about 'through-put' - getting people in and out as quickly as possible without trying to look at the whole person. He may as well have called it 'conveyor belt care'."

"There are always other factors with one of our patients - physical things, family things, social problems. It's more than just their mental health."

He believes if the service is scrapped patients with physical or social problems will stop getting the joined-up care they need.

The FPU works as a drop-in centre which sees around 30 people a day.

Elderly patients can get help on the spot for mental health problems and advice on anything else they need.

Southwark Pensioners Action Group (SPAG) and Southwark Mind have both responded angrily to plans to cut or close the centre.

But South london and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) said a consultation on the future of the FPU and day-care services across Lambeth and Southwark was planned for later in the year.

If closed, the FPU would be the second unit closed by SLaM in a year,after the Maudsley's 24-hour emergency clinic was shut to patients in May.

Campaigners are fighting to over-turn that decision. North Southwark and Bermondsey MP Simon Hughes recently submitted a 5,000-signature petition calling for it to be reopened.

Elderly 'suffering mental health pandemic'

Britain's elderly are in the grip of a mental health crisis with more than 3.5 million older people suffering depression or dementia, according to a new study reported in the Daily Telegraph.

The new figures show the scale of mental health problems in the over-65s is far greater than previously thought.

Experts warn unless prompt Government action is taken the number of those suffering mental health problems will rise by a third in the next 15 years.

The disturbing analysis is released today by the UK Inquiry into Mental Health and Well-Being in Later Life, involving experts from the London School of Economics, the Royal College of Nursing and the charity Age Concern.

According to the study, up to 2.6 million older people - one in four of those over 65 and two in five of those over 85 - are suffering from depression or serious symptoms of depression. Meanwhile, one in five people over 80 suffers from dementia.

Describing it as a "mental health pandemic", the report claims that these are the "invisible" people whose problems are often caused by loneliness, long-term illness and lack of independence.

Many avoid seeking help because of a perceived stigma. Those that do seek help often receive inferior treatment and have their symptoms put down to age.

The inquiry calls for a Government task force to be set up by 2008 to tackle the problem.

"There is no time to waste. As our population ages, we must ensure that the number of older people who suffer mental health problems are minimised," the report says.

"The majority of older people with mental health problems do not receive services. We need to shift our attention to them, to ensure they are supported by loved ones and enabled to care for themselves - by design, not by accident or neglect."

The study predicts that unless there are effective interventions, 3.5 million older people will have symptoms of depression and almost one million will have dementia by 2021.

It states that the Department of Health framework for mental health services has so far focused only on people up to 65.

Those over that age receive lower-cost and inferior services to younger people, even if they have the same condition.

Dr June Crown, the chairman of the inquiry said: "Mental health problems in later life are often preventable and treatable, and action to improve the lives of older people who experience mental health difficulties is long overdue."

Ivan Lewis, a junior health minister, said: "This report raises fundamental questions for the NHS, care system, families and all communities."

Bridlington: Axe falls on mental health wards

A mental health ward is to close at Bridlington Hospital within weeks, and a second could close in three years - reports the BBC.

The Humber Mental Health NHS Trust said it was planning to treat more patients in their homes.

Mick Pilling, who is leading a campaign to save the hospital, said it was "another nail in the coffin, another much-needed service gone."

Last November it emerged the hospital's maternity unit is to close as the local NHS trust tackles £7m of overspending.

Hospital bosses had said mothers-to-be in the town would be encouraged to opt for home births.

Now officials at the mental health trust, which runs the threatened Waters Ward in Bridlington, said home treatment for older patients would replace in-patient services.

They said the Waters Ward would close in the autumn, with beds transferring to Castle Hill Hospital at Cottingham, near Hull.

Officials said that either the Buckrose Ward at the hospital or Bartholomew House at Goole would also close, probably within three to five years.

Mr Pilling added: "Waters Ward will close in the autumn and be taken to Castle Hill by all accounts.

The mental health trust said some patients would eventually be treated at a new facility to be built in the East Riding.

The mental health trust is part of the bigger Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust which earlier this month announced it was to axe 600 jobs - a third of its workforce - at two Yorkshire hospitals.

The trust, which runs hospitals in Scarborough and Bridlington, plans to close wards and reduce non-clinical support services to save £15m.

Union officials had said the cuts would have a "devastating" impact on patients.

The trust's chief executive, Iain McInnes, said the trust needed to work "more efficiently, with fewer positions".

Southwark: Mental health clinic threatened with closure

Supporters of a mental health clinic threatened with closure fear a consultation into its future will be a sham after hearing the manager will be moved - reports ICSouthLondon.

The Felix Post Unit at the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill faces the axe and a consultation is due to start in August.

But this week, campaigners learnt its manager of 11 years is to be moved to another job.

A source close to the clinic said: "She would be out by the end of the month. We all feel that they are attacking the service by stealth.

"They are taking out its very strong leader before the consultation begins."

The South London Press has been told the manager is now looking into launching a complaint through her union.

Lois Austin, from the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, said: "This consultation is going to be a sham. They are winding the clinic down so that when it comes to the consultation they can say it's not really operating and use that as an excuse to close it."

Tony Farsky, a former patient at the clinic and campaigner through the Southwark Pensioners' Action Group,said: "They are effectively closing the place, it is despicable.

"The staff there are very dedicated to their jobs and this is no way to treat them."

The South London Press put the claims to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust which refused to deny the manager was being moved.

In a statement, it said: "We do not discuss routine, individual staffing issues with the media. However, it is not uncommon for staff to be offered secondment opportunities elsewhere within the trust."

The news comes in the same week that campaigners learnt that Simon Hughes, MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, plans to present a petition in Parliament on cuts at the Maudsley before the end of the month.

The petition, which now has more than 5,000 signatures, calls for the new Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, to look again at the decision made by his predecessor, Patricia Hewitt, allowing the Maudsley Hospital's 24-hour emergency clinic to close.

Manchester: New debt crisis hits health trust

Mental health services in Manchester have been placed on the government's critical list - reports the Manchester Evening News.

Cash-strapped Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust which started the financial year £4.5m in debt, will have to report its financial progress to regional health bosses every fortnight.

It is the second trust in Greater Manchester to officially enter "turnaround" - a Department of Health initiative to tackle debt crisis.

MMHSCT, which has a historic debt of £1.9m and is already predicting it will be £2.5m in the red by March next year, will have to appoint an outside troubleshooter to find ways to cut spending and make savings.

New chief executive Sheila Foley said: "While we are disappointed with the decision, we are determined to use this opportunity to put the Trust into sustainable financial stability.

"We remain committed to delivering the agreed improvements to mental health services across the city."

The turnaround programme was started by the Department of Health 15 months ago.

Turnaround trusts have to produce detailed plans of how they will provide patient care and bring their finances in line.

The city's mental health services are set to undergo radical changes after a public consultation called Change In Mind.

Karen Reissmann, of the MMHSCT staff union's forum and a top member of Unison's executive, said: "Mental health nationally and certainly mental health in Manchester has been under-funded for many years, despite the obvious high need.

Stoke: More mental health beds could face axe

More community beds for mentally ill people could be axed in Stoke-on-Trent following the controversial plan to lose eight at a Tunstall unit.

Health officials yesterday gave notice they may next turn their sights on the city's two other mental health resource centres in Longton and Shelton once the beds at the Greenfield unit have gone.

The beds give short-term intensive care which avoids people having to be admitted to the area's main Harplands psychiatric hospital in Hartshill.

But Stoke-on-Trent's NHS funding body, the primary care trust (PCT), wants to use them instead to rehabilitate longer-stay patients from the hospital.

The move will leave the city with just 16 community beds at the Sutherland centre in Longton and the Bennett unit in Shelton - and the PCT failed to give councillors a guarantee that those were safe.

PCT joint senior commissioning director Jane Tipping told the city's health scrutiny commission that bed use was falling because of schemes to support patients in their own homes.

But councillors voiced fears that the number of remaining beds would be too small to cope, especially as the incidence of stress and depression was growing in society.

Adrian Knapper said: "There is no flexibility here. When all 16 beds are full, are patients number 17 and 18 expected to walk the streets?

"And with the Tunstall patients being moved to beds in Shelton and Longton, the relatives and friends will face transport difficulties visiting them."

Hilda Johnson, from Combined Healthcare's patients forum, said: "We are unhappy about the closure of these beds so we would be worried if they started shutting even more besides."

People in Bennett and Sutherland are already worried that they will be discharged to make room for patients from Greenfield."

The Greenfield bed closures - opposed by a petition from staff and patients - were initially part of a cost-cutting programme unveiled last year.

Colchester: £4m health cuts fears

Mental health services in north Essex face cuts of up to £4 million, reports the Colchester Evening Gazette.

Beds could go at key outpatient units like The Lakes in Colchester and Peter Bruff ward at Clacton Hospital, as NHS bosses aim to plug budget black holes.

North East Essex, Mid Essex and West Essex primary care trusts (PCTs) are all reviewing the services they commission from North Essex Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

As well as Colchester and Tendring beds, areas under "particular scrutiny" include home visits and long-term care for elderly patients.

The blow comes hard on the heels of evidence that already too little is being done to help those with mental illness, which affects one in four of the UK population.

An official study revealed that an average of 52 people a year – one a week – are killed by violent patients released into the community.

A lack of support at home was blamed for figures showing 1,300 mentally ill people commit suicide every year.

A spokesman for the Mid Essex PCT said: "The PCT is looking to all its partner NHS organisations to endorse a joint approach to achieving efficiency savings."

Colchester MP Bob Russell said: "I believe what we are witnessing is further evidence that the NHS is in financial crisis."

- Article contributed by: Mr & Mrs L.C. M, Colchester

NHS deficits cast a long shadow

The warning signs have been flashing for a while, but it was only last week that a clearer picture emerged of the way NHS deficits have impacted on mental health services, reports The Guardian.

A report from Rethink, the mental health charity, concludes that mental health is being disproportionately hit by NHS belt-tightening in the wake of deficits estimated at around £700m.

The report, A Cut Too Far, identifies £30m-worth of cuts in mental health services across England and suggests that further cuts are likely as trusts struggle to balance their books.

If Rethink is correct, then it means that despite repeated reassurances from government that all areas of mental health are a high priority, the reality is that when other parts of the NHS are struggling financially, it is - as usual - the "Cinderella service" of acute mental health provision that is squeezed.