Specialized mental health crisis will be opened in England in the next decade in order to reduce overlaps in accident and emergency services (A&E), the NHS confirmed.
Ten hospital trusts have piloted new evaluation centers to deal with people with a mental health crisis.
The objective is to bring these patients to appropriate care in a calm environment, avoiding long expectations in A&E.
The NHS in England said that new units would reduce overcrowding in hospitals and relieve pressure on emergency services, including the police.
But Andy Bell, CEO of the Center for Mental Health, said that any new provision should be properly funded.
The regime is expected to be extended nationally to “dozens of locations,” said the government, as part of its NHS plan at ten years.
These clinics will be open to patients without appointments as well as those referred by general practitioners and the police, with specialized staff present to treat people in acute mental distress.
Addressing the newspaper Times, the chief of NHS England, Sir Jim Mackey, praised the “new pioneering model”, where people can “get the right support in the right frame”.
“In addition to relieving the pressure on our occupied A & S, the evaluation centers of the mental health crisis can accelerate access to appropriate care, offering people the help they need much earlier so that they can remain safe from the hospital.”
Andy Bell told BBC Breakfast that he was skeptical about the program because he was not tested.
He said it was impossible to separate physical and mental health problems, therefore simply, calling for distinct installations to set up “carefully”.
“We have to test the model robustly at each stage before even thinking of deploying it national,” added Mr. Bell.
Calling better financing from the NHS mental health services, he noted that the share of healthcare health spending had dropped last year and was about to start again.
A recent study of emergency care in England revealed that the number of people waiting for 12 hours or more after a decision to admit in a neighborhood was the highest since the start of modern files. It exceeded 60,000 in January, or 11% of emergency admissions.
The government also announced the expansion of a program last month to help general practitioners provide care and advice to patients, without them joining the long waiting lists at NHS hospital in England.
