I've asked the Prime Minister to support round-the-clock emergency care for people with mental health problems.
Mental illness effects all of us. Every year, one in four British people suffer some kind of mental health problem. That means we all know someone who has been touched by this – be it our parents, siblings, friends, children or ourselves.
Mental health has profound consequences on physical health too. For men under 50, suicide is the single biggest cause of death. Depression limits life expectancy as much as smoking. Mental illness accounts for nearly half of all disease in people under 65.
The figures are stark, but for years mental health has been overlooked. Despite accounting for 23 per cent of the burden of disease, mental health only receives 13 per cent of NHS expenditure. This is an issue that’s close to my heart, and I’ve made tackling it one of my priorities since becoming an MP.
People who are suffering from a mental health crisis often don’t know where to turn, so they go to already over-stretched A&E departments. In fact people with mental health problems are three times more likely to turn up at A&E than those without. When they do, it’s vital that they can get the specialist help they need. Though emergency departments are open 24x7, several Kent A&Es don’t have mental health specialists on hand for many of those hours. The consequences can be tragic.
Shaz (not her real name), a young woman with a history of self-harm, was discharged from hospital following an assessment by an A&E nurse. The next day she took an overdose and was taken by ambulance to the same A&E department she been discharged from the night before. This might have been avoided if Shaz had received appropriate treatment when she first went to A&E.
At present Maidstone hospital has psychiatric liaison services in A&E from 9am to 5pm, 7 days a week, with extended hours until midnight Thursday to Saturday. East Kent University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has psychiatric liaison in A&E from 8am to 4pm seven days a week. Outside these hours, the staff in A&E have to call on Crisis Teams, who are also responding to calls from the Police and from people experiencing an emergency at home. This can result in a wait of many hours in A&E, even overnight.
This is despite the fact that Kent has a significantly higher-than-average suicide rate – out of 100,000 men in Kent 16.5 will commit suicide compared to an average of 14.1 per 100,000 in the country as a whole. Although there is a lack of accurate data, it is known that men are particularly likely to go to A&E during a mental health crisis, rather than seeking alternative help.
I recently met the psychiatric liaison team at Maidstone hospital and heard that people come to A&E presenting with mental health problems at all times of day – not just nine to five. Sometimes people who arrive in A&E at night have to wait until the next morning, when the psychiatric liaison team’s shift starts again, to be treated.
On 5th January I asked Alistair Burt, Minister of State in the Department of Health, to update the House of Commons on what the Government is doing to ensure access to specialist health care in A&E. You can read the Hansard report here.
On 11th January, the Prime Minister announced in his speech on Life Chances that £250 million will be invested in psychiatric liaison services in A&E. I'm determined that Kent’s hospitals should get their fair share of the funds. I'm going to meet with the Prime Minister’s advisor on health and also health minister Alastair Burt MP, to discuss how the policy will be taken forwards.
I've also written to the local CCGs pressing them to offer round-the-clock psychiatric liaison, and discussed plans being developed by West Kent CCG to improve the crisis response in and out of hospitals in a recent meeting.
I welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement that £250 million will be invested in psychiatric liaison services in A&E. I am following up with the Prime Minister’s health advisor and the health minister to make sure no time is wasted in putting this into practice, particularly here in Kent.
I have contacted local CCGs, which are working out new contracts for psychiatric liaison at the moment, saying I want to see round-the-clock services in our emergency departments. West Kent CCG tells me they are working on plans for comprehensive crisis response services at the moment.
It’s also good to see the local NHS has started tracking how often patients in A&E for mental health reasons wait for more than 4 hours. This is being compared to the figures for patients in A&E with physical health needs. The Government has committed to ‘parity of esteem’ between mental health care and physical health care. I want to see this happen in practice and this is a small but significant step towards that.”
