NHS: Mental Health Patient Assessment Needs

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they are giving to creating an NHS pathway for patients in need of urgent assessment who, due to mental health conditions, are unable to tolerate tests such as scans or blood tests without a general anaesthetic.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare an interest, as my grandson is a severe case of autistic Down’s syndrome.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton) (Con)]

My Lords, we have not considered creating such a pathway. We would expect a patient’s mental and physical health needs to be taken into account when they access NHS services.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes]

I thank the Minister for his formal Answer but I should go on to explain that my grandson, Christopher, now 23, has no speech and is unable to explain what is happening to him. He has changed from an apparently happy boy and a loving family member to a person suffering violent outbursts, in which he hits his head as if in pain or he attacks others. His increasingly erratic behaviour results in him being excluded from the health groups from which he has benefited so much in the past. Clinicians have already identified the need for a scan but this must be done under general anaesthetic. They are unable to access any NHS team able to do this as there is no clinical pathway, and in some cases patients known to these clinicians have had to wait up to two years. Why should any mentally disadvantaged child—as he was but he is now growing up—not be able to access a full and necessary examination within weeks rather than years?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

It is obviously not possible for me to comment on an individual case but it sounds like a very tragic and a very difficult case. Of course, someone in that kind of position ought to have access to normal NHS facilities and care, and I am at a loss to know why my noble friend’s grandson has not been able to get proper access. The fact that a general anaesthetic is required, and has been said to be required by a clinician, should not make it any more difficult to access that kind of care. I am very happy to look at this as an individual case and, if it is not just an individual case but an example of a broader problem, I shall be very happy to meet my noble friend outside the Chamber to pursue the matter with her.