Can £500m for mental health transform services?
Marjorie Wallace, Chief Executive of SANE, comments on mental health spending in the Chancellor’s forthcoming Spending Review:
“The additional £500 million to support mental health services in England is welcome, but crisis care is still desperately under-resourced and despite government pledges patients are still being shunted across the country to find a hospital bed.
“Some trusts are running at zero capacity and we remain concerned that the NHS Long Term Plan makes little reference to increasing the provision of local psychiatric beds.
“We also need urgent investment in updating and rebuilding psychiatric units to reduce stigma and provide the essential backstop to community services that can deliver treatment and care fit for the 21st century.”
