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BURSTOW STEPS UP PRESSURE FOR RETHINK OVER HENDERSON CLOSURE
May 27, 2006 12:00 AM
Sutton and Cheam MP, Paul Burstow, took the fight to save the Henderson Hospital to Parliament last week challenging Minister to put right a system that 'is not fit for purpose' because Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are ill equipped to commission specialist mental health services.
Mr Burstow raised his objection to plans to close the Henderson's internationally renowned service for people with moderate to severe personality disorder during a debate in Parliament last week (22nd May). The service provided is known as a tier 4 residential service.
Mr Burstow told the House of Commons: "The NHS and the Minister responsible accept there is a need for tier 4 provision such as the Henderson. Everyone wills the ends, but no one will identify the means to deliver them. The Government's review of the commissioning of specialist mental health services, the Carter review, found that PCTs are ill equipped for the task of specialist commissioning of such complexity.
"In a system driven by tick boxes and targets, services such as the Henderson do not fit. So when Ministers say that this is a devolved matter for PCTs and that they cannot intervene, they miss the point. Closure is a direct result of the way in which devolution to PCTs was designed by the Department of Health. It is a consequence of policy, not of individual decisions of PCTs. There are no incentives for the complex regional collaborations necessary to commission specialist services."
"I hope that the Department of Health will wake up to that fatal flaw in the system before it is too late. Every day the service is closed, the risk is that the clinical expertise will be lost and, far worse, that the lives of those people who could have been helped will not be changed for the better."
Mr Burstow and Carshalton and Wallington MP, Tom Brake, are organising a cross party delegation to go and see South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust Chief Executive, Peter Houghton, to press the case for retaining tier 4 residential provision.
ENDS
Notes. The full Hansard for the debate visit: http://pubs1.tso.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080522/debtext/80522-0008.htm
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