Mind responds to Darzi review of the NHS
Mind responds to Darzi review
A new report has revealed the full scale of the challenges facing the health service. Commissioned by health secretary Wes Streeting and overseen by former health minister Lord Darzi, the report comes ahead of annual NHS statistics on the Mental Health Act showing more than 52,000 people were sectioned in the last year. The review, which Mind welcomed the chance to contribute to, has identified gaps in nearly every part of the NHS’ ability to function.
The Darzi Review’s key findings include:
- The UK is lagging behind global peers on capital investment into estates and infrastructure. If the UK had matched countries like Germany, France or Australia on funding, it could have allotted an extra £37bn of capital expenditure to land, buildings and equipment. Instead, the report says, we have crumbling buildings and mental health patients are being accommodated in “rooms that were constructed for a Victorian asylum”.
- There is a fundamental problem in the distribution of resources between mental health and physical health. Mental health accounts for more than 20 per cent of the disease burden but less than 10 per cent of NHS expenditure
- A patient with mental health problems speaking to Lord Darzi during a service visit told how nearly 20 men were expected to share just two showers. Laundry facilities were often broken, they struggled to maintain their personal hygiene and dignity. There were leaks, floods and infestations of mice and cockroaches.
- Nearly 500,000 children and young people are on waiting lists for mental health support; with 160,000 of them waiting for more than a year.
- There were 345,000 referrals where people are waiting more than a year for first contact with mental health services—more than the entire population of Leicester—and 109,000 of those were for children and young people under the age of 18.
- After years of cuts, the number of mental health nurses has just returned to its 2010 level.
Dr Sarah Hughes, Chief Executive of Mind, said:
“This is a dark day for mental health. Lord Darzi’s findings showing many people in mental health crisis are being held in rooms constructed for a Victorian asylum are disturbing, shameful, but ultimately unsurprising. This comes in the same week as the opening of the country’s largest inquiry into mental health inpatient services, looking at the deaths of thousands of people. Also published today are new NHS figures showing more than 52,000 people were sectioned under the Mental Health Act last year. How many more reports and inquiries will it take before we see meaningful action to end what is a national scandal?
“The desperate state of mental health services is not a secret. People who have spent time in mental health hospitals tell Mind they are ‘holding places’, ‘cold’ and even ‘prison-like’. Elsewhere in community and primary care services, millions of people are on a waiting list for mental health support. Without the help they need to prevent reaching crisis point, people are becoming more unwell.
“Today must be a turning point. It is a chance for the new government to make real change to the lives of people with mental health problems. Passing an ambitious and compassionate Mental Health Bill, that truly brings the Mental Health Act into the twenty-first century, is an essential first step. People with mental health problems deserve better than derelict wards, racial inequalities and coercive treatment. It is time to end this needless trauma and deliver a new deal for mental health.”
