Tag: waiting times

Millions of people with mental health needs still not accessing services, NAO finds

Despite funding and staffing levels for mental health services increasing and more patients being treated, millions of people with mental health needs are still not accessing services, with some facing lengthy waits for treatment, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report, Progress in improving mental health services in England.

The report says it is unclear how far current government commitments take the NHS towards its end goal, and what else is needed to achieve it. While funding and the workforce for mental health services have increased and more people have been treated, many people still cannot access services or have lengthy waits for treatment. Staff shortages continue and data that would demonstrate the results of service developments are limited.

Health and Social Care in England

Tackling the myths

Source: The King’s Fund

The health and care system is under intense pressure, with rising waiting times, persistent workforce shortages and patients struggling to access the care they need. As a result, patient and public satisfaction with services has dropped significantly, prompting debate and discussion about the future of health and care services. In the context of what can feel like a heated political and media discussion, the King’s Fund have taken five myths that sometimes feature in this debate and debunked them.

Read the article here.

Beds in the NHS

Royal College of Emergency Medicine Acute Insight Series

This report shows that an additional 13,000 staffed beds are required in the NHS across the UK to drive meaningful change and improvement. Meaningful change and improvement would constitute a significant improvement in A&E waiting times, ambulance response times, ambulance handover delays, and a return to safe bed occupancy levels.

Psychological Therapies

Annual report on the use of IAPT services 2019-2020

The publication contains analyses on activity, waiting times and outcomes such as recovery in 2019-20. In addition, the report covers a range of demographic analyses including outcomes for patients of different ages, ethnic group and separately for ex-British Armed Forces personnel.

Key facts include;

  • 1.69 million referrals to talking therapies
  • 87.4% started treatment within 6 weeks
  • 1.17 million referrals started treatment
  • 6.9 sessions of treatment on average
  • 606,192 referrals completed course of treatment
  • 51.1% referrals moved to recovery

To read the full report or find out more information click here.

Right treatment, right time

Rethink Mental Illness, November 2018
This report sets out a clear picture of the significant gap in access to health services for people severely
affected by mental illness based on a survey with 1,600 respondents. It identifies:

  • Average wait time for an assessment is 14 weeks
  • 56% of respondents believe they are not receiving treatment in adequate time
  • 30% asked for a service that was unavailable
  • 28% believe they were not referred by GP to an appropriate service
  • 51% felt that they received this support for a sufficient and appropriate time.
  • At least 20 people talked about having attempted or thought about suicide due to lack of services

Click here to view this report.