Growing staff shortages in mental health care are affecting the quality and safety of care, a new report has warned.
Meanwhile the funding gap between the amount spent on acute hospitals and mental health trusts has widened in England, the authors claimed.
The new report, by health think tank The King’s Fund, said income for mental health trusts rose by less than 2.5% in 2016/17 compared to over 6% for acute and specialist trusts.
Meanwhile, analysis of Care Quality Commission inspection reports for 54 mental health trusts identified an increased risk to patient safety as a result of problems with staffing in more than half of trusts.
And the number of mental health nurses has fallen 13% since 2009, while one in 10 of all posts in specialist mental health services are currently vacant, the report said.
Report author, Helen Gilburt, a fellow in health policy at The King’s Fund, said: “Unless funding grows more quickly, mental health providers may end up implementing improvements to some services at the expense of others.
“Despite the commitment of national leaders, the funding gap between mental health and acute NHS services is continuing to widen, while growing staff shortages are affecting the quality and safety of care.
“As long as this is the case, the Government’s mission to tackle the burning injustices faced by people with mental health problems will remain out of reach.”
Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said: “Mental health has been under-resourced for too long, with dire consequences for people with mental health problems.
If people don’t get the help they need, when they need it, they are likely to become more unwell and need more intensive – and expensive – support further down the line.”
Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national mental health director, said: “Specialist mental health trusts remain integral to patient care, but any analysis of funding which looks only at spending by these trusts will overlook around one third of investment in mental health services, which now stands at over £12 billion.
“Whilst it will take time to undo years of under-investment, local mental health funding last year was went up nearly twice as much as the overall rise in health spending, and the King’s Fund itself acknowledges that ‘the great majority of local clinical commissioning groups have met their commitments to raise spending on mental health’.”