Concern over mental health changes
November 11, 2010 8:06 AM
NHS Wiltshire and Avon & Wiltshire Partnership Mental Health Trust (AWP) have been working on redesigning mental health services in Wiltshire since spring 2010.
The changes are another step in the government's Care in the Community concept, with shifting of resources from inpatient beds to community services, in line with the PCT's strategy of providing care closer to home.
The number of Mental Health beds in Wiltshire will reduce by 50%, beginning in 2011. One of the two wards at Green Lane Hospital in Devizes will go.
The Trust wants to save £3million in Wiltshire over the next 3 years. They say, "This service redesign model will deliver the major part of these savings (with the remainder being identified in specialist services and individual placements). The first phase of the redesign will deliver £750,000 of savings in 2010/11, in line with the financial framework set out in the PCT's Delivering Value for Patients programme."
The changes have been carried out in consultation with users and carers, but members of Wiltshire Council's Health Scrutiny Committee were worried that the consultation may have been inadequate.
At the meeting on November 11th committee member Judy Rooke believed there had not been enough involvement of patients, and suggested the change was profound enough to require referral to the Secretary of State. This is the only sanction the council has if it doesn't like what the local NHS providers are doing. Jane Ody said she felt Devizes had been "sold down the river", saying groups in the town were ready to fight the reduction in beds.
However the majority view of committee members was to endorse and support the changes.
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