Mental health teams in hospitals can achieve major cost savings to the NHS, reveals new report

Edited by Andy Porter editor@wellbeingnorfolk.co.uk

Liaison psychiatry teams in general hospitals can cut costs to the NHS by reducing how many people need beds and how long they stay, according to a report published by Centre for Mental Health with the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network and the London School of Economics and Political Science, and funded by the Strategic Health Authority Mental Health Leads.
Liaison psychiatry services provide mental health care to people being treated for physical health conditions in general hospitals.
The Economic Evaluation of a Liaison Psychiatry Service examines the costs and benefits of an award–winning service based at Birmingham City Hospital. The service, known as RAID, offers comprehensive, around–the–clock mental health support to all adult patients in the hospital.

The report finds that the financial savings RAID generates within the hospital significantly outweigh the costs of running the service. Since expanding from a small liaison psychiatry team to its current form in 2009, RAID is estimated to have cut the costs of bed use within the hospital by some £3.5 million a year.
Most of the savings the service generates come from shorter lengths of stay and reduced readmissions to the hospital among elderly patients. But further savings are also likely to be generated by an increase in the number of patients being discharged to their own homes rather than residential care. The report concludes that liaison psychiatry can represent good value for public money. It both cuts costs in the NHS and improves people’s quality of life. According to the report, by even the most conservative analysis, the RAID service creates savings that are four–times bigger than the extra cost of expanding the service it replaced.
The report is published alongside an NHS Confederation briefing, With money in Mind: The benefits of liaison psychiatry.
Visit Centre for Mental Health online: www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk.

http://www.wellbeingnorfolk.co.uk/2011/11/mental-health-teams-in-hospitals-can.html