MP to urge minister to intervene over failing mental health trust
Today (16th) local MP Tim Farron will meet with health minister Jackie Doyle-Price to ask her to urgently intervene over South Cumbria's failing mental health services.
The future of local mental health services were left in limbo last month after Cumbria Partnership Trust stalled over plans to transfer the services to Lancashire Care Trust, which was rated as 'requires improvement' in a recent CQC report.
Meanwhile, mental health services in North Cumbria are set to be moved to Northumberland, Tyne & Wear Foundation Trust, which has been rated as 'outstanding' and is one of the top performing mental health trusts in the county.
Tim has repeatedly raised concerns over Cumbria Partnership Trust's ability to deliver mental health services after a CQC reported them as 'inadequate' when it came to 'responsiveness' to youth mental health services.
On top of this, recent figures from the Trust shows that they are badly missing targets when it comes to eating disorder services, with over three quarters of young people with eating disorders not being seen by a psychologist within the national standard of four weeks.
Tim said: "The Partnership Trust are trying to offload responsibility of our mental health services onto another failing trust.
"Poor management and leadership decisions have left us into a situation where vital mental health services are now failing in many cases and there's nobody at the top actually making any changes to make things better.
"There are wonderful people working in our local mental health services, but the service is under-resourced and not well led - South Cumbria is just an afterthought for health bosses.
"That's why I'll be asking the minister to intervene so that people of all ages with mental health conditions can get the treatment and the service that they need and deserve."