Increasing risks as funding neglects mental health

New evidence gathered by NHS Providers has revealed that mental health patients are being placed at increasing levels of risk from ageing and often unsafe mental health buildings.

The analysis stands in contrast to the recent funding announcements from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, after it was revealed that not one of the six hospital trusts given funding to develop a new hospital or the 21 trusts given seed funding in the government’s health infrastructure plan, and just three of the 20 hospital projects which received funding earlier in the summer, are mental health trusts.

This is despite the Care Quality Commission’s 2018 State of Care report on mental health finding that many mental health wards throughout the country are ‘unsafe and provide poor quality care’ in ‘old and unsuitable buildings’.

NHS Providers says that the number of reported patient safety incidents caused by infrastructure last year was 19,088, compared to 17,693 in 2017/18. These incidents include unsafe environments with a risk to personal safety and inappropriate clinical environments.

Furthermore, the number of infrastructure incidents, such as inappropriate disposal of clinical waste or wards that are too hot or too cold, in mental health trusts has increased by 28 per cent from 2015/16 to 2018/19, compared to a 16 per cent increase for incidents in all trusts. There were seven never events reported in mental health trusts in 2018 as a result of a shower/curtain rail failing to collapse and one as a result from a fall from a window.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Of course last weekend’s announcement of additional capital funding for selected acute hospitals was great news for those trusts, their staff and their patients. And there was a further, longer list of trusts provided with seed funding to develop future projects.

“Incredibly though, there was not a single mental health trust included in any of these plans. How can that be? As our research shows, we have seen repeated warnings of the risks – sometimes fatal - arising from the long term neglect of our mental health estate. And we have heard repeated pledges from government to ensure parity of esteem for mental health conditions.

“How bad does the situation have to get before these warm words translate into practical steps to ensure a safe therapeutic environment that respects the dignity and privacy of patients who rely on these services? And how can we hope to overcome the severe recruitment challenges we face in mental health without a clear commitment to improve the often unacceptable physical infrastructure?This was a damaging and regrettable oversight which must be put right.”

Claire Molloy, chief executive of Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, which runs mental health and learning disability services within Greater Manchester, added: “The environment has a significant impact on mental health patients, as well as the staff caring for them. It affects the rehabilitation and recovery of people at an incredibly vulnerable and difficult point in their lives, and yet so many of the buildings are old and unsuitable.

“People with lots of complex and enduring mental health symptoms may often require inpatient care, and they need modern, safe and quality facilities as much as patients with physical health conditions. However, without additional investment , it is very difficult to provide this without making big savings elsewhere.”