Cuts will leave us with a warehouse for the mentally ill

Published: 23 June, 2011

• AT a meeting of the Camden & Islington Foundation (Mental Health) Trust governors, we learned that it is being required to find 9 per cent budget cuts.  

This is because of overspending by other trusts in the North Central London sector.  

Mental health is, once again, being treated as the Cinderella service, while the “big-hitter” trusts spend, spend, spend. And we are being told by the government that the NHS is exempt from cuts.

So what does 9 per cent mean? We have heard about the closure of 95 mental health beds, resulting in the loss of the Grove Centre and Queen Mary’s House, both of which are closing imminently. This will save nearly £5m.A hasty “discussion” is currently being held about the future of St Luke’s Hospital, which has been in use for mental health treatment since 1930.  

This historic site, which the trust owns, and which is a green and pleasant  environment for users of mental health services, is to be flogged off to the highest bidder as soon as possible. You would think that means the site is empty but, no, there are some houses on the boundary of the site, which are home to a number of men with long-term needs. 

Scandalously, although these houses are not included in the current “discussion”, it seems there will be a hasty consultation on their future, after the decision to sell has been made. These are among the most vulnerable in our society.  

The trust hopes to gain £20million from the sale of St Luke’s. This capital money is earmarked for building more  wards on the Highgate Mental Health Centre site which, we are told, will eventually become the trust’s only in-patient provision. Doesn’t that sound like the re-creation of a huge asylum? 

The whole point of Highgate Mental Health Centre was that, like St Luke’s, it was a green and pleasant environ­ment. If too much provision is crammed onto it it will lose that advantage for service users and will turn into a warehouse for the mentally ill.  

This is especially unfortunate for those, like older people suffering from dementia, who need long-term care, peace and stability.

The final piece of the cuts jigsaw is the changes to community mental health services. These are creeping in without discussion with anyone. One thing is clear the community mental health teams, upon which many people rely, are being cut from six to two teams. 

If you feel these cuts are too much, why not join me and others on a deputation to the next meeting of the North Central London NHS sector to tell them so. 

Or write to their chief executive at nclondon. nhs.uk, or Victory House, 170 Tottenham Court Road, W1.

You can contact me on the email address below. 

PENNY ABRAHAM
penelopeabraham@gmail.com