Health bosses and politicians should be ‘screaming from the rooftops’ over the £90million under-investment in Greater Manchester’s mental health services. That was the verdict of a senior Salford councillor Jim King who was addressing Salford’s health and adults scrutiny panel. He was speaking following the delivery of an ‘improvement plan’ update following two consecutive Care Quality Commission (CQC) findings that Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust (GMMH) was ‘inadequate’. Addressing officials from the trust, Coun King asked: “What impact does this have on our levels of service and staffing? Presumably, it is having an impact. “What kind of loud noise is being made about being under-provided with cash in Greater Manchester in comparison with other areas and shouldn’t people in the health service and politics be screaming from the rooftops about it? If not, why aren’t they? Because I’m sure that resonates with people. Responding, deputy chief operating officer of the GMMHT, said: “We are working very closely with the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB). There is a national standard expected across the country. “There are areas where we do know we need investment. Further investment will be targeted.” Director of commissioning for Salford city council Judd Skelton added: “The £90m differential is longstanding and it’s across Greater Manchester. “Salford has always been the highest investor in mental health out of the 10 (former) Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Greater Manchester, but still lower than the average nationally.” He said it was being ‘flagged up’ by people like the lead commissioner for mental health and executives at the ICB. The £90m shortfall was revealed following an ‘independent diagnostic’ commissioned by the ICB. Members of the scrutiny panel were told of a £4.7m investment into a plan to improve mental health services after an initial inspection prompted the CQC to issue the trust with a Section 29A warning notice in April 2022 demanding improvement. A further inspection in July this year also gave it an overall ‘inadequate rating’ although there were areas of the service which were upgraded to ‘requires improvement’. GMMH has nearly 100,000 patients and 6,700 staff. More than 8,000 students have used its recovery academy over the last 10 years. The trust has been subject to a series of scandals, including young people dying on mental health wards, followed by admissions medical notes were doctored; harrowing treatment of vulnerable people at inpatient facilities caught on camera; and staff in racism rows. In September 2022, a BBC Panorama programme uncovered scenes of horrific treatment of inpatients at the trust’s Edenfield Centre, capturing apparent humiliation, verbal abuse, the mocking and assault of patients – plus alleged falsification of medical paperwork. Even more serious failings across the trust’s care were reported by the Manchester Evening News before and after the episode’s airing. Salford’s deputy mayor and lead member for adult services and wellbeing Coun John Merry sat in on the panel meeting and was candid about the financial constraints facing general health services in the city and across Greater Manchester. He described the local health services as still being in ‘Covid recovery mode’. “We have a very strict management taking place in terms of our budget,” he said. “It’s not been very helpful that our hospital is under strict management by the NHS. “I’m not pretending that the situation is easy at the moment. The NHS, particularly in Greater Manchester, is under-spent according to budget, and that is causing massive problems.” And addressing the officers from GMMH he said: “I’ve just heard how hard you are working to alleviate that, I’m lost in admiration with what’s happening. “But we have very strict management taking place in terms of budget, and the authorisation that I suspect you have to have before spending something out of the ordinary. “And it’s not been very helpful. Our hospital (Salford Royal) in particular is under strict management on its finances from the NHS.” He said there was an ‘intervention team’ from a major financial services company currently in place at the hospital going through all their expenditure, including their spending on adult social care, ensuring that it ‘represents the very best value for money’. And he spoke of ‘very close scrutiny’ over NHS cash to relieve bed blocking at the hospital. “I’m having to deal with an awful lot of complaints and arguments at the moment,” he said. “That’s my main priority.” Coun Merry also spoke of attempts to alleviate the pressure on Salford Royal’s accident and emergency department (A&E). He said: “Demand on accident and emergency services at Salford is dreadfully high. We’re working with the hospital, for example, to establish whether the people who go to A&E actually need to be there or whether they can be treated in different ways. “Someone just turning up, for example, because they’ve drunk too much the night before, with all due respect, if they come to accident and emergency they will be seen, but it will be at the expense of patients who have a more urgent need for that service. “It’s not just that, it’s the fact that many people feel that they can’t get access to their GP and they go to A&E. A&E is what it means – accident and emergency – it is not about routine care.”
