Tag Archives: NHS
Children with mental illness admitted to adult wards amid bed shortage
Acutely ill children as young as 12 years old are being admitted to adult wards
By: Information Daily Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, February 20, 2014 – 09:51
Acutely ill children as young as 12 years old are being admitted to adult wards due to bed shortages at specialist child services, a Community Care/ BBC investigation has found.
350 minors were admitted to adult mental health wards in the first nine months of the period 2013/14, up from 242 in 2011/12, data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed.
Of these minors, 12 were aged under 16 and one was just 12 years old, a situation NHS England admits is “totally unacceptable in the majority of cases”.
The investigation also found that many children were being uprooted from their communities and sent to mental health wards up to 150 miles away from home. One child was sent a record 275 miles away, leaving their Sussex home to stay in Greater Manchester.
Care Quality Commission’s David Prior attacks NHS culture
Health regulator David Prior said the NHS could ultimately go bust if change did not happen
The head of the health watchdog says the NHS in England has a culture that “doesn’t listen” and he has been “shocked” by behaviour he has seen.
Care Quality Commission chairman David Prior said a rift between managers and clinicians was jeopardising safety and blocking improvements in care.
He said the NHS could go bust without “serious change” and called for more competition to drive up standards.
Integrated urgent care needs funding overhaul, NHS leaders tell MPs
By Neil Roberts, 22 January 2014
NHS England officials plan to overhaul funding arrangements for the whole urgent care system, but admitted to fears that councils could misuse health service funding intended to promote integration.
House of Commons: MPs questioned NHS England officials
Part of NHS England’s ongoing urgent care review will look at ways to allow integrated funding of urgent care pathways across primary and secondary care, its acute care director Professor Keith Willett told MPs on the House of Commons health select committee.
The current fragmented system of different funding and commissioning systems for general practice, hospitals, ambulances and community care services meant even when the sectors were brought together to commission integrated urgent care pathways caused problems, said Professor Willett.
Professor Willett, who is leading the review of urgent care under NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh, said: ‘When we come to allocate the money, again, we are still stuck with those methods.
