General Article Mental health cuts costing NHS millions

Topic Selected: Mental Health
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A report highlighted the rising pressures on the mental health trusts to provide care for patients with a diminishing budget. The mental health trust budget rose to its highest in 2011/12 but referrals also rose by 13%. Last year’s budget fell by 2.3%, despite higher demand. 

 

 

This correlates to the community mental health teams, who provide long-term support to patients, being asked to save almost 20% more for next year’s budget than hospitals.

Rethink Mental Illness published the report with the London School of Economics.
In this tough economic situation, the value of service is increasingly important. Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb, called for a ‘shift of resources’ to preventive care and said that the Government had given NHS England a ‘clear objective’ to put mental and physical health on a par.



The report suggested that a reallocation of the budget could help alleviate the situation. For example, 54% of the psychosis budget was being spent on inpatie...

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