There’s still a good deal of muttering about a comment a few weeks ago by new NHS chief executive Simon Stevens that he was looking forward to the demise of care homes. “It would be a disappointment,” he told charity Age UK’s annual Later Life conference, “if in 30, 40, 50 years’ time, nursing homes still existed.”
Monthly Archives: August 2014
Mental health patients sent hundreds of miles for a bed
The cost of treating mental health inpatients in hospitals outside their local areas has spiralled, research by HSJ reveals.
Figures supplied by 21 NHS trusts reveal that their collective spending on out of area placements solely due to capacity pressures jumped 42 per cent, from £32m in 2011-12 to £46m in 2012-13 – the last full year for which figures were available.
According to HSJ research, the number of patients treated outside their areas also increased.
Norfolk’s pledge on mental health care
Police, political leaders and health service chiefs have joined forces to pledge an improvement to mental health care in Norfolk.
12th August 2014
The county is the first in the country to sign up to the government’s mental health crisis care agreement, a joint statement on how public bodies should work together to tackle mental health problems.
The declaration has been signed by bodies including Norfolk Police, the county’s police and crime commissioner, Stephen Bett, and Norfolk County Council, plus a host of health trusts, commissioning groups and charities.
It states: “We will work together to improve the system of care and support so that people in mental health crisis are kept as safe as possible.
