21 July 2006
Mental health trusts have been asked to curb their spending to help other parts of the NHS balance their books, according to the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.
In a survey of mental health trust finance directors published on July 20, the charity found that almost all the trusts broke even in 2005/06, compared with just two-thirds of other NHS bodies. Three-quarters of mental health trusts had taken special measures to break even, usually by freezing recruitment of vacancies.
Despite this good financial management, mental health, long seen as a 'Cinderella' service, was being squeezed this year — 63% of the 32 finance directors who responded claimed their local primary care trusts were spending less than planned on mental health. The cuts averaged 3%.
The finance directors told the charity that their budgets would increase by 3.6% this year, compared with 7.1% last year. More than two-thirds (68%) believed the cash was being diverted to help ease the financial pressures caused by the introduction of the payment by results hospital funding scheme.
Angela Greatley, the charity's chief executive, said the survey was worrying. 'The NHS exists to bring greater fairness to health care funding and provision. It is essential to maintain that principle so the needs of mental health service users and their families are not compromised by financial pressures elsewhere.'
NHS Confederation chief executive Gill Morgan said well-managed trusts should not be punished for the failure of others.
'It doesn't allow trusts to properly run their business. The NHS Confederation has been calling for this cost-shunting to be stopped,' she added.
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