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Mind says mental health patients travelling 79 miles for a bed is “not acceptable” (5 May 2015)

Date: 05/05/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Mind says mental health patients travelling 79 miles for a bed is “not acceptable”

Mental health charity Mind has said that mental patients having to travel up to 79 miles for NHS treatment is not acceptable.

BBC News reports that a review of the 226 English clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in October 2014 shows that the average journey for a mental health patient was 13 miles (22km).

However, six mental health teams cared for patients who had to travel for at least 62 miles (100km) for in-patient treatment – and as far away from their homes as 79 miles (127km).

A report by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) shows that the majority of mental health patients travel a distance of less than six miles (10km) – but one in ten (a total of 1,665 patients) have to travel 31 miles (50km) or more and one in 20 patients (a total of 778 patients) travel 62 miles (100km) or further.

NHS figures show that mental health patients living in Brighton and Great Yarmouth and Waveney are subjected to the longest journeys to access acute care mental health services as in-patients.

The report states:

“The data shows that people living in the South and East of England – particularly in CCGs covering large geographic areas such as NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG (median of 94.4km to treatment for 15 people treated) – are more likely to travel further to treatment on average.”

A spokesman for the CCG for Great Yarmouth and Waveney – HealthEast - said:

“Beds for mental health patients are arranged by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust – who will look for the closest available appropriate bed to the patient's home.

“It is important to note that patients living in Great Yarmouth and Waveney are only placed out of the area very occasionally and when appropriate.

“We will continue to work with the mental health trust to ensure people are treated as close to home as possible.”

In November 2013, an investigation by local Norfolk publisher EDP24 revealed that Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) had spent millions of pounds on treatment for mental health patients sent out-of-area – some were sent as far away as London.

NSFT faced budget cuts of 20% and pledged to reduce the number of mental health patients sent out of the area for acute care and special placements.

Head of policy and campaigns at Mind, Vicki Nash, said:
“When someone is in a mental health crisis, they are at their most vulnerable.

“A good support network of friends and family can play a key part in recovery,” Ms Nash added.

“But if someone is sent far from home... friends and family may be less likely to be able to visit.”

“We know that bed numbers have been dropping over the last few years, making it harder for people to get the help they need, when and where they need it – it's not acceptable.”

A spokesman for Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG said:

“The priority of the CCG is to always place patients in the most appropriate care setting as close to home as possible – and this happens in the majority of cases."

“Geographically, the Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG covers a large area – and in its report, the HSCIC recognises this as a major factor affecting distances travelled by the 15 East Suffolk mental health patients.

A spokeswoman for Bristol CCG said it was “working in partnership with Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust to prevent anyone being transported out of area for their care and treatment”.

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