Legal News

Mental health charity Mind has responded to a consultation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and NHS Improvement on their proposals to change how they rate a trust based on the use of financial resources.

Mind says that it “strongly disagrees” with this approach and that of including financial resources as a key line of enquiry (KLOE), as the focus of any trust and provider of healthcare should be the quality of care it is delivering.

Making use of financial resources equal to safety, responsiveness and how caring a provider is may undermine the quality of care the provider is expected to deliver, says the charity.

“While productive use of resources must be something that trusts ensure they’re doing well, it should not be part of the key questions an inspection is seeking answers to,” said Mind in a statement.

“Mind is responding to this consultation as it covers important issues which impact on people experiencing a mental health problem and use NHS health services.

We are responding where we have expertise and knowledge – and where we feel people with mental health problems will be greatly affected.”

The charity adds that its response is based on the expertise of its Policy & Campaigns teams, policy work the charity has carried out – and the experience of people with mental health problems.

“Mind recognises that effective use of financial resources is significant to enable health and social care providers to fully deliver high-quality care for the patients they treat we fully acknowledge the need for ensuring that financial capability of providers is adequate to deliver effective and efficient services.”

The charity says, however, that it “strongly opposes” the proposal to add the use of resources as an additional key line of enquiry and increase KLOEs from the existing five.

“To take this approach, in Mind’s view, is to signal that financial capability as use of resources is either an equal, or greater, key line of enquiry for delivering care.

This approach dilutes the strength of the current KLOEs (safe, caring, effective, responsive and well-led), as they clearly include the level of quality expected from each provider in an accessible way, for all stakeholders interested in the quality of service being delivered.”

The charity says the current five KLOEs focus on the quality of care a member of the public could expect, which – when accessing a service – was the most tangible experience of the care patients would receive.

Including an equal weighting for use of resources – and extending the number of KLOEs from five to six – would not support the transparency, for quality purposes, of how well a provider was delivering care, the charity stated.

“Past experiences widely reported within the NHS tell us that, when financial reputation is ardently pursued, the quality of care is almost always neglected – and deteriorates significantly as a consequence,” said Mind.

Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is the UK’s largest provider of Legal Aid mental health services and can advise mental health patients on a wide range of issues – including access to NHS mental health services and detention under the Mental Health Act.

Duncan Lewis mental health solicitors regularly visit NHS hospitals to advise on mental health law – and are available across England and Wales at short notice for hospital and police station appointments.

In some cases, Duncan Lewis mental health solicitors may be able to advise the nearest relative or carer of a mental health patient on a range of issues, including initiating treatment reviews where appropriate.

For expert legal advice on mental health law, call the Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors Helpline on 020 3114 1124.