Warning issued over worrying cuts to mental health services
By William Smith
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has issued a warning over ‘worrying’ cuts to mental health services in the NHS. This comes after campaigners claimed that services in some areas were seeing their funding halved.
Dr. Clare Gerada, chair of the RCGP and a GP in Kennington, South London spoke out in an interview with The Pulse. She warned that cuts to mental health services could reverse ‘the amazing successes of the last ten years’ in mental health. Dr. Gerada also said that news of cuts was ‘worring’ and warned that shedding mental health services in local areas, including ‘wrap around’ support would damage care and put further pressures on GPs.
The union Unite has written to 65 GP practices in Nottinghamshire asking them to protest against cuts to local mental health services. The union is urging GPs to contact NHS Nottingham City to object to the cuts. Cuts have already been seen in Mind counseling service’s budget slashed along with several clinical staff facing redundancy.
Unite says that the staffing budget will be halved from £3.2 million to £1.6 million but NHS Nottingham insists that after the cuts the budget will be ‘in excess of £2 million’.
Speaking to Pulse, Dr Gerada said: ‘I worry we'll end up back in a position where patients can't access decent talking therapies, where there aren't decent assessments for patients with complex problems. GPs won't want that to happen, it would harm their patients and see their workload rise dramatically.'
‘We are working with the Royal College of Psychiatrists to support GPs in commissioning mental health services. I think, on the whole, GPs manage mental health services remarkably well but they will need support on commissioning them. That is not a criticism; it is simply a reflection on the fact that GP commissioners face such an enormous task over the next two years.'
Unfortunately, it would appear , mental health services are a ‘soft target’ which councils and primary care trusts look to first when considering cost cutting. These cuts, if implemented, would come at a time when the demand for mental health support is increasing.
