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Mental Health Solicitors
South Tyneside mental health patients to be sent out of area for treatment (20 January 2014)
Date: 20/01/2014
Mental health patients in South Tyneside could be forced to travel to Northumberland if a local council proposal to close three mental health units in South Tyneside goes ahead.
South Tyneside’s People Select Committee is considering the final stages of a proposal which would close the Bede Wing in the grounds of South Tyneside District Hospital, as well as the hospital’s Leas Unit and Ward 18.
South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is aiming to provide more care for mental health patients in the community rather than in hospitals.
A new mental health unit is being built in Sunderland at Hopewood Park in Ryhope and South Tyneside Council is now seeking reassurances from CCG bosses that patients will be offered transport to mental health units if they need inpatient or outpatient care out of the area. The council also says that patients must not be transferred for treatment to the new unit until the facilities have been full tested.
The news of patients in South Tyneside having to travel to mental health units outside the area comes at a time when many councils are actually taking steps to cut down on sending mental health patients for out-of-area placements.
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust last week pledged to end out-of-area placements for mental health patients within four months – some mental health patients from Norfolk and Suffolk were being sent as far away as London for acute placements offering treatment to those with a high risk of self-harming or even suicide and special placements such as mother and baby units.
South Tyneside Labour Councillor John McCabe who is chairman of the People Select Committee said that providing transport for mental health patients sent for treatment out of the area was “crucial” – and added that travelling to see a loved one being treated with a mental health condition was also stressful for families.
“There is a great stress and strain put on families who have to travel some distance to see their loved ones. We need to get this right,” he said.
Some patients being treated by South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust may have to travel as far away as Morpeth in Northumberland, to be treated at St George’s Hospital’s mental health unit.
A spokesman for the South Tyneside CCG said:
“There may be circumstances where patients with family in Northumberland may wish to go there. Wherever they go, the same travel arrangements would be in place.”
Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors
Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of specialist mental health solicitors and can advise on mental health law, including detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 and initiating treatment reviews for mental health patients.
For expert advice on mental health issues, contact the Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors Helpline on 0203 114 1124.