Mental Health Services
(asked on 7th October 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many out-of-area mental health placements started in each NHS region in each month since March 2020.
During the height of the pandemic, the scrutiny on out-of-area (OAPs) placements was paused, acknowledging the need for providers to focus on managing the impact of the pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement published guidance to the National Health Service on 26 March 2020, which provided a relaxation in the reporting of OAPs. Nationally, both bed occupancy and OAPs dropped significantly in March and April due to significant efforts to discharge people from hospital wherever it was safe to do so, coupled with reduced referrals and presentations. Bed occupancy began to increase again in May as lockdown eased, leading to a subsequent increase in OAPs from June.
The available information requested1 is shown in the following table.
Region | March 2020 | April 2020 | May 2020 | June 2020 | July 2020 |
London Commissioning Region | 75 | 35 | 55 | 50 | 95 |
South West Commissioning Region | 75 | 15 | 50 | 60 | 70 |
South East Commissioning Region | 15 | 30 | 35 | 60 | 50 |
Midlands Commissioning Region | 85 | 65 | 85 | 120 | 120 |
East of England Commissioning Region | 55 | 15 | 30 | 15 | 30 |
North West Commissioning Region | 45 | 15 | 45 | 70 | 70 |
North East and Yorkshire Commissioning Region | 100 | 55 | 80 | 120 | 130 |
Unknown Region | 5 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 5 |
England (total) | 455 | 230 | 385 | 505 | 570 |
Source: NHS Digital
1 rounded to the nearest 5
The percentage of organisations in scope which participated each month was as follows: March 2020: 89%; April 2020: 84%; May 2020: 79%; June 2020: 81%; July 2020: 82%.