Mind comments on Care Quality Commission report

Posted Tuesday 12 March 2013

The Care Quality Commission has today published the second of its State of Care reports, in which it assesses NHS and independent healthcare services.

The latest report found that the numbers of NHS mental health services that meet the standard on staffing levels has dropped. It also found problems in the management of medicines and records in NHS servcies, and cleanliness and infection control and safety and suitability of premises in independent services.

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive at Mind, the mental health charity, said:

The lack of improvement in many areas of mental health service provision is deeply concerning and some services have actually deteriorated in some very basic ways. We are particularly worried that NHS staffing levels are dropping dramatically. It’s impossible to see how the poor record on medicines management and record keeping, for example, can start to improve without sufficient staff to do the job, yet these are fundamental activities that underpin safe patient care.

The government says it believes that mental health is as important as physical health, and has enshrined this principle in law in the Health and Social Care Act. Despite this, mental health services are still lagging behind on even the most basic standards. We have recently seen a trend of transferring funding away from mental health services towards other health services and there seems little doubt that this is having an adverse effect.

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