NEWS
PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS NEED RCN CALLS FOR NHS A HOSPITAL BED NOT A POLICE CELL, SAYS CQC TO BE LEFT OUT OF GLOBAL TRADE DEAL providers exclude some groups of Too many people experiencing
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a mental health crisis are being sent to police cells because of a shortage of safe healthcare places, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned. People in crisis should be taken to a place of safety in a mental health hospital or accident and emergency department for a mental health assessment. In its report, A Safer Place To Be, the health regulator says many patients are turned away from places of safety because they are full or understaffed. A quarter of the 56 NHS trusts and two social enterprises providing specialist mental health services surveyed by the CQC said the provision of places of safety in their area is insufficient. The health regulator also said too many
people, including young people, people who are intoxicated, and those with a history of violence. RCN mental health adviser Ian Hulatt said that the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, launched by the government and charity Mind in February 2014, is carrying out important work to improve working between organisations to ensure more places of safety for people experiencing a mental health crisis are available. ‘While progress has been made, too many people are still ending up in inappropriate places during a mental health crisis,’ he said. ‘Commissioners need to be encouraged to see this in the same way that they would a physical health crisis.’ To read A Safer Place To Be report, go to tinyurl.com/mdstbc7 See feature page 20
The RCN has written to the government and members of the European Parliament calling for the NHS to be exempted from a major international trade deal. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is currently being negotiated to remove trade barriers between the European Union and the United States. The college fears the move could result in increased health service privatisation and undermine the UK’s ability to maintain the NHS in the public sector. There are concerns that American private businesses could sue if future UK governments decide to change existing health service legislation. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said: ‘Health workers, patients, and the public want a cast-iron guarantee that TTIP will not leave the NHS vulnerable to privatisation through the backdoor.’ tinyurl.com/p68ylef
Report proposes multispecialty community care model Senior hospital nurses could begin working alongside district nurses and primary care staff in new community-based organisations under a five-year plan unveiled by NHS chief executive Simon Stevens last week. Consultants could be employed in the ‘multispecialty community providers’ to shift most outpatient consultations out of hospitals. The new care model is one of a number outlined in Mr Stevens’s Five-Year Forward View for the NHS, which warns of a potential annual funding gap of £30 billion by 2020 unless services are redesigned. Under the plans, hospitals will be able to open onsite GP surgeries with registered patients in areas where practices are under strain. This would reduce the pressure on accident and emergency departments
dealing with patients attending because they have been unable to get a GP appointment. Patients will have evening and weekend access to GPs or nurses working from community bases. Mr Stevens said: ‘It is perfectly possible to improve and sustain the
‘THE NHS NEEDS TO CHANGE AND WE NEED THE SUPPORT OF OTHERS TO DO THIS’ NHS over the next five years in a way that the public and patients want. ‘But to secure the future that we know is possible, the NHS needs to change substantially, and we need the support of future governments and other partners to do so,’ he added. According to the plan, ‘NHS pay will need to stay broadly in line with
private sector wages in order to recruit and retain front line staff’. The report says England must ‘get serious’ about preventing avoidable illnesses such as diabetes and that ‘hard-hitting national action’ is needed to reduce the health risks associated with tobacco, alcohol and junk food. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said: ‘The right clinical leadership to lead the new models of care, the focus on prevention and care closer to home and investment in staff are all positive suggestions and need to happen if the health service is to cope with the demands it is going to face in the years to come.’ He added: ‘Nursing staff will be delighted at the acknowledgment that unless they are paid competitive rates, nurses will vote with their feet and leave the NHS.’
8 october 29 :: vol no 9 :: 2014 STANDARD Downloaded from29 RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 22, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS NEED RCN CALLS FOR NHS A HOSPITAL BED NOT A POLICE CELL, SAYS CQC TO BE LEFT OUT OF GLOBAL TRADE DEAL providers exclude some groups of Too many people experiencing
ISTOC
K P H OT
O
a mental health crisis are being sent to police cells because of a shortage of safe healthcare places, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned. People in crisis should be taken to a place of safety in a mental health hospital or accident and emergency department for a mental health assessment. In its report, A Safer Place To Be, the health regulator says many patients are turned away from places of safety because they are full or understaffed. A quarter of the 56 NHS trusts and two social enterprises providing specialist mental health services surveyed by the CQC said the provision of places of safety in their area is insufficient. The health regulator also said too many
people, including young people, people who are intoxicated, and those with a history of violence. RCN mental health adviser Ian Hulatt said that the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, launched by the government and charity Mind in February 2014, is carrying out important work to improve working between organisations to ensure more places of safety for people experiencing a mental health crisis are available. ‘While progress has been made, too many people are still ending up in inappropriate places during a mental health crisis,’ he said. ‘Commissioners need to be encouraged to see this in the same way that they would a physical health crisis.’ To read A Safer Place To Be report, go to tinyurl.com/mdstbc7 See feature page 20
The RCN has written to the government and members of the European Parliament calling for the NHS to be exempted from a major international trade deal. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is currently being negotiated to remove trade barriers between the European Union and the United States. The college fears the move could result in increased health service privatisation and undermine the UK’s ability to maintain the NHS in the public sector. There are concerns that American private businesses could sue if future UK governments decide to change existing health service legislation. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said: ‘Health workers, patients, and the public want a cast-iron guarantee that TTIP will not leave the NHS vulnerable to privatisation through the backdoor.’ tinyurl.com/p68ylef
Report proposes multispecialty community care model Senior hospital nurses could begin working alongside district nurses and primary care staff in new community-based organisations under a five-year plan unveiled by NHS chief executive Simon Stevens last week. Consultants could be employed in the ‘multispecialty community providers’ to shift most outpatient consultations out of hospitals. The new care model is one of a number outlined in Mr Stevens’s Five-Year Forward View for the NHS, which warns of a potential annual funding gap of £30 billion by 2020 unless services are redesigned. Under the plans, hospitals will be able to open onsite GP surgeries with registered patients in areas where practices are under strain. This would reduce the pressure on accident and emergency departments
dealing with patients attending because they have been unable to get a GP appointment. Patients will have evening and weekend access to GPs or nurses working from community bases. Mr Stevens said: ‘It is perfectly possible to improve and sustain the
‘THE NHS NEEDS TO CHANGE AND WE NEED THE SUPPORT OF OTHERS TO DO THIS’ NHS over the next five years in a way that the public and patients want. ‘But to secure the future that we know is possible, the NHS needs to change substantially, and we need the support of future governments and other partners to do so,’ he added. According to the plan, ‘NHS pay will need to stay broadly in line with
private sector wages in order to recruit and retain front line staff’. The report says England must ‘get serious’ about preventing avoidable illnesses such as diabetes and that ‘hard-hitting national action’ is needed to reduce the health risks associated with tobacco, alcohol and junk food. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said: ‘The right clinical leadership to lead the new models of care, the focus on prevention and care closer to home and investment in staff are all positive suggestions and need to happen if the health service is to cope with the demands it is going to face in the years to come.’ He added: ‘Nursing staff will be delighted at the acknowledgment that unless they are paid competitive rates, nurses will vote with their feet and leave the NHS.’
8 october 29 :: vol no 9 :: 2014 STANDARD Downloaded from29 RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 22, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
