Decision is not financial

Published: 28 October, 2010

You have featured the recent move of a service user to Northampton. 

It would not be proper for me to comment on a specific case and I shall not do so. However, I can assure your readers that any move of a service user to a different location is entirely a clinical decision and not financially driven; in fact it costs us more money, rather than saving it, to send someone to an alternative provider. It is also not due to bed shortages; we have at present over 70 empty beds, so there is no pressure in this respect.

It is rare, but sometimes necessary, to send patients to specialist centres for periods of time, if the clinical need requires this. This is the same as the process that occurs in acute physical health when, say for cancers, the NHS recommends sending someone to a more distant but specialist service to ensure the best possible outcome.I understand this can be very distressing for the family of someone in this situation, and I have only sympathy for their predicament. We appreciate how important it is for individuals to have access and contact with their immediate families. We therefore only take the decision to place people at a distance where it is absolutely clinically indicated. 

Our aim is to get the best possible care for a service user, even if this means relocating to a specialist unit out of London.

RICHARD ARTHUR
Chair, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation