Agenda item

The attached report sets out the response from Kent and Medway NHS Social Care Partnership Trust in respect of the request for regular updates on the position with the acute mental health inpatient beds review.

Discussion: 

The Interim Director of Operations, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) introduced the report on the acute mental health inpatient bed review update and responded to Members’ questions.

He stated that the situation regarding acute beds was similar to that of the hospital in that failure to discharge patients puts pressure on the system and brought about the need for out of area placements.  He informed the Committee that the operational work had reduced bed usage by 8 beds compared to the previous year and stated that it was better to concentrate on community support rather than admitting people to a hospital bed. 

In relation to the Emergency Care Intensive Support Team (ECIST) who were assisting the hospital with improving patient flow it had been agreed that the Team would work with KMPT to see if there was anything, which could be done to improve patient flow as far as mental health was concerned.  KMPT were the first mental health trust to make use of this Team and he was hopeful that they would be able to improve the whole system, as they are expert at getting health economies to work better together.  He referenced the increased use of section 136 detentions by the Police and hoped that the ECIST work could assist in reducing the number.  A request was made for data at the next meeting on the number of section 136 detentions locally per head of population compared to other areas.

As far as page 46 of the report was concerned a request was made that in future a glossary of terms is provided.  In explaining the single point of access he stated that in future trained mental health nurses would respond to calls to the Crisis team to undertake telephone triage which should give a better patient experience and earlier intervention.

Responding to a question it was stated that a bed would always be found where there was a need for one and that work was ongoing to try to find other ways of dealing with the top 20 users of services who tended not to be the most ill as they were using 7% of the resources.  Concern was expressed by Members at the amount of funding used on out of area placements and It was felt that this money could have been used to refurbish A block but the Chief Clinical Officer pointed out that the aim was to keep people out of hospital. 

Reference was made to the fact that that back in 2013 the Independent Review Panel, endorsed by the Secretary of State, had put forward recommendations around acute mental health inpatient beds in Medway including the suggested closure of A block (which was deemed unsafe), the development of 174 acute inpatient beds and the strengthening in the community support.  Serious concern and disappointment was expressed that in spite of these recommendations the 174 beds had still not been found and A block was still in use.

The Interim Director of Operations, KMPT stated that it was hoped the beds in Maidstone would be opened and A block vacated by the end of February 2015 and confirmed it was still the intention to have 174 acute inpatient mental health beds.

A request was made that at the next meeting the Transformation Programme could focus on service delivery and the impact of intervention.  The Healthwatch Medway representative offered to produce data collected on patient and carer feedback in relation to mental health and this was welcomed.  It was requested that Megan, a mental health service user group, could also be invited to contribute to this report.

Decision:

(a)   The report was noted;

(b)   It was agreed that the additional information from KMPT and Healthwatch Medway/Megan outlined in the discussion above are submitted to the next meeting.