Issue - items at meetings - Mental Health acute beds in Brighton & Hove

Report of the Strategic Director, Resources, on plans to improve Brighton & Hove mental health services/reduce city reliance on acute mental health beds (copy attached)

36.1    This item was introduced by Ms Geraldine Hoban, Chief Operating Officer, Brighton & Hove Emerging Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG); and Dr Richard Ford, Executive Director of Strategic Development; Dr Mandy Assin, Clinical Director for Older People; and Ms Samantha Allen, Service Director, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT).

36.2    Dr Ford and Ms Hoban explained to the committee that benchmarking exercises had identified an over-reliance on mental health acute beds in Brighton & Hove, with both above-average admission rates and longer than average bed stays. There is a national consensus that high quality mental health services use acute bed spaces sparingly – placing patients in them only when it is really necessary, and keeping people in hospital for as short a time as is commensurate with the best clinical outcomes. For this reason there has been a recent re-design of local mental health services, aiming to reduce reliance on acute beds. By introducing a new community assessment service, by improving pathways for a number of conditions, by commissioning a rapid response service for urgent referrals, by focusing on providing support to facilitate early discharge, and by better liaison with general health services (for people with both mental and physical health problems), SPFT and the CCG are confident that services levels can be maintained or improved with 19 fewer city mental health acute beds. Members were assured that no beds would be cut until it could be evidenced that the demand for them was no longer there.

36.3    Members were told that recent improvements to services had already seen average length of stay in acute beds fall significantly, and that there had been no recent recourse to placing Brighton & Hove patients out of area (although out of area placements had been necessary while the recent refurbishment of Mill View hospital took place).

36.4    The committee was told that there had been extensive consultation with stakeholders and service users over these changes, with strong support for the direction of travel. SPFT offered to share this information with the HOSC.

36.5    Members agreed that, before they could agree to support the plans, they would need to see more detailed information, particularly in terms of assurances that there would not be a negative impact on local people, and in terms of how impacts would be monitored. It was agreed that a workshop event would be arranged to discuss these issues in greater detail.

36.6    RESOLVED – That the committee should arrange a workshop session to discuss the accommodation plans in detail before deciding whether to support these plans.