Funding cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk show the government is failing to put mental and physical health on an equal footing, campaigners say.
Mainstream hospitals in the two counties have seen budgets rise by 15% since 2010, while mental health service funding has fallen by 3%.
The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said the cuts were “devastating”.
The campaign group spokesman said: “Cuts of this scale are quite unacceptable and are having a devastating impact on people who rely on mental health services.
“Despite this, another £44m of cuts are planned over the next five years. Nothing stigmatises those who rely on mental health services more than the increasing disparity between mental and physical health funding.”
Michael Scott, chief executive of NSFT, said: “We’ve seen policymakers talk about parity of esteem, that’s a very welcome development, and it’s being followed by a healthy debate about mental health and funding.
“We all know these are tough times for the public sector but we believe that, at a national level, there needs to be greater focus on fairer funding for mental health.”
Where is the self-proclaimed ‘champion of mental health’ and Secretary of State at the Department of Health, Norman Lamb?
Surely Norman ‘mental health champion’ Lamb would want to comment on the appalling disparity in funding between mental and physical health?
Surely Norman ‘mental health champion’ Lamb would want to talk about how the system his government created and for which he is personally responsible at the Department of Health has cut mental health services relative to physical health by fifteen per cent in only three years?
Surely Norman ‘mental health champion’ Lamb wants to tell the public how the £44 million in cuts in mental health planned over the next five years can be implemented safely?
Surely Norman ‘mental health champion’ Lamb would want to talk about what ‘parity of esteem’ means in the face of cuts of this magnitude?
What has Norman ‘mental health champion’ Lamb been doing for the last four years while mental health services in his own constituency and across Norfolk and Suffolk have been destroyed?
At least Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) now has a Chief Executive brave enough to tell the truth to the public about the funding crisis in mental health.
Norman Lamb’s duplicity is nauseating. Where are you Norman? Not even a ‘totally unacceptable’ this time?
Click on the image below to read Nic Rigby’s story in full on the BBC website:
Think Norman might have found a bed in Darlington or Weston-Super-Mare where he can hide under the covers until the election is over.
NSFT have let down the local population and a member of my family who has been ill for five years, not taken seriously, given inadequate treatment and left with no treatment as so complex, been fighting for the right treatment for the last 11 months, the government lets down the hard working population with constant cuts to the services we need most.
Meanwhile the government pays GP’s £55 per patient diagnosed with Dementia, and then expects them to be monitored / treated by an under funded mental health service, (expecting more cuts), with fewer beds, community teams under resourced, and staff at breaking point. Duplicity.
Outstanding feature
Outstanding feature