This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
2,000 mental health staff quitting per month
New government figures have revealed that thousands of nurses, therapists and psychiatrists are quitting NHS mental health services, despite plans to expand the workforce.
The Department of Health and Social Care figures indicate that 23,686 mental health staff left the NHS between June 2017 and the end of May 2018, adding extra pressure onto services which are understaffed and struggling to cope with rising demand.
Labour MP Paula Sherriff was informed by Health Minister Jackie Doyle-Price that one in 10 mental health posts were unfilled at the end of June, while the mental health workforce had only increased by 915 extra people by March, despite then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt pledging last July to increase the mental health workforce by 21,000 staff by 2021.
Sheriff is quoted as saying: “These shocking figures show the government is woefully failing to meet the prime minister’s promise to tackle the ‘burning injustice’ of inadequate treatment for mental illness. Ministers promised to deliver the biggest mental health expansion in Europe and recruit 19,000 more NHS staff. But more than a year later the workforce has increased by fewer than 1,000. More than one in 10 mental health posts are vacant and nearly 25,000 staff – one in eight – have flooded out of the NHS in the space of just a year.”
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