Mental Health Services: South East

(asked on 19th February 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for mental health patients in the South East.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 27th February 2019

National waiting time standards for Early Intervention in Psychosis, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies and Children and Young People Eating Disorder Services are already being met or are on track to be met by 2020/21 for the south east.

Under the NHS Long Term Plan, there will be a comprehensive expansion of mental health services, with an additional £2.3 billion per year in real terms by 2023/24. NHS England will be testing four week waiting times for children and young people’s, adults’ and older adults’ community mental health teams, with selected local areas. Clear standards will then be set for patients requiring access to community mental health treatment and rolled out across the National Health Service over the next decade. This will include new waiting times for children and young people, adults and those experiencing a mental health crisis. Specific waiting times targets for emergency mental health services will also take effect from 2020 for the first time.

More detail will be available in the spring, when NHS England publishes further plans for implementation.

As part of implementing the proposals set out in the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper, a total of 25 trailblazer areas have been selected for Wave 1 and 12 of these areas will pilot a four week wait time standard for children and young people, including Buckinghamshire Clinical Commission Group and Oxfordshire Clinical Commission Group.

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