Latest news with #SirJimMackey
The Independent
24-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
NHS to open more ‘mental health A&Es' to relieve pressure on hospitals
The NHS will open more mental health crisis centres across England in a bid to keep those patients out of 'crowded A&Es', the head of NHS England has said. The new service, staffed by specialist doctors and nurses, will be open to patients who present symptoms of a mental health crisis, such as suicidal thoughts or psychosis, The Times reported. Ten NHS trusts have already launched separate units for mental health emergencies, some on the sites of existing A&Es, which are open to walk-in patients are well as those referred to the service by GPs and police. The scheme is expected to be expanded nationally to dozens of locations as part of a 10-year NHS plan to be published this summer by the Labour government, according to the newspaper. Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, told the paper: 'Crowded A&Es are not designed to treat people in mental health crisis. 'We need to do better, which is why we are pioneering a new model of care where patients get the right support in the right setting. 'As well as relieving pressure on our busy A&Es, mental health crisis assessment centres can speed up access to appropriate care, offering people the help they need much sooner so they can stay out of hospital.' Patients attending emergency services with mental health symptoms are twice as likely to wait 12 hours or more than other patients, a 2022 report from The Royal College of Emergency Medicine found. The new mental health units will seek to reduce the waiting time for mental health patients and avoid the overcrowding of A&E departments amid a 'corridor care' crisis and pressure on other emergency services, including police. In November 2023, the Metropolitan Police, the country's largest force, announced its officers would not attend mental health call-outs where a healthcare professional is more appropriate. Claire Murdoch, the NHS national director for mental health, told the newspaper: 'I would certainly hope to see these mental health A&Es across the country over the next decade.' Dr Luke Evans MP, shadow health minister, said the Conservatives welcomed the move. He added: 'However, this follows the Labour Government's decision to cut mental health spending as a proportion of the overall NHS budget and impose a Jobs' Tax that has forced mental health charities and local authorities to redirect their resources away from those struggling most. 'This Government must now make sure that these units are funded properly so that those struggling the most with their mental health can receive the targeted and compassionate care they're in need of.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Urgent mental health centres to open across England
Specialist mental health crisis centres will be opened across England over the next decade in a bid to reduce crowding in accident and emergency departments (A&E), the NHS has confirmed. Ten hospital trusts have been piloting new assessment centres to deal with people experiencing a mental health crisis. The aim is to get these patients to appropriate care in a calm environment, avoiding long waits in A&E. NHS England said the new units would reduce overcrowding in hospitals and relieve pressure on emergency services, including the police. But Andy Bell, the CEO of the Centre for Mental Health, said any new provision needed to be properly funded. The scheme is expected to be expanded nationally to "dozens of locations", the government said, as part of its ten-year NHS plan. These clinics will be open to walk-in patients as well as those referred by GPs and police, with specialist staff present to treat people in acute mental distress. Speaking to the Times newspaper, NHS England chief Sir Jim Mackey hailed the "pioneering new model of care", where people can "get the right support in the right setting". "As well as relieving pressure on our busy A&Es, mental health crisis assessment centres can speed up access to appropriate care, offering people the help they need much sooner so they can stay out of hospital." Andy Bell told BBC Breakfast he was sceptical of the scheme because it was untested. He said it was impossible to separate out physical and mental health problems so simply, calling for separate facilities to be put in place "carefully". "We need to robustly test the model at every stage before we even think about rolling it out nationally," Mr Bell added. Calling for better funding of NHS mental health services, he noted the share of health spending on mental health treatment had gone down last year and was set to do so again. A recent study of emergency care in England found that the number of people waiting 12 hours or more in A&E after a decision to admit to a ward was the highest since modern records began. It topped 60,000 in January, or 11% of emergency admissions. The government also announced the expansion of a scheme last month to help GPs provide care and advice to patients, without them joining long NHS hospital waiting lists in England.
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Urgent mental health centres to open across England
Specialist mental health crisis centres will be opened across England over the next decade in a bid to reduce crowding in accident and emergency departments (A&E), the NHS has hospital trusts have been piloting new assessment centres to deal with people experiencing a mental health aim is to get these patients to appropriate care in a calm environment, avoiding long waits in A&E. NHS England said the new units would reduce overcrowding in hospitals and relieve pressure on emergency services, including the Andy Bell, the CEO of the Centre for Mental Health, said any new provision needed to be properly funded. The scheme is expected to be expanded nationally to "dozens of locations", the government said, as part of its ten-year NHS clinics will be open to walk-in patients as well as those referred by GPs and police, with specialist staff present to treat people in acute mental distress. Speaking to the Times newspaper, NHS England chief Sir Jim Mackey hailed the "pioneering new model of care", where people can "get the right support in the right setting". "As well as relieving pressure on our busy A&Es, mental health crisis assessment centres can speed up access to appropriate care, offering people the help they need much sooner so they can stay out of hospital."Andy Bell told BBC Breakfast he was sceptical of the scheme because it was untested. He said it was impossible to separate out physical and mental health problems so simply, calling for separate facilities to be put in place "carefully"."We need to robustly test the model at every stage before we even think about rolling it out nationally," Mr Bell for better funding of NHS mental health services, he noted the share of health spending on mental health treatment had gone down last year and was set to do so again. A recent study of emergency care in England found that the number of people waiting 12 hours or more in A&E after a decision to admit to a ward was the highest since modern records began. It topped 60,000 in January, or 11% of emergency government also announced the expansion of a scheme last month to help GPs provide care and advice to patients, without them joining long NHS hospital waiting lists in England.
Telegraph
09-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
No more money for NHS, says new chief executive
The NHS has 'maxed out' what is affordable, its new chief executive has said. Sir Jim Mackey said the NHS had as much money as it was going to get and that there had been 'no conversations about tax rises' with Wes Streeting. The 58-year-old, who took over from Amanda Pritchard in April, said it was 'now about delivering better value for money'. He also said that 'we are all to blame' for the current state of the NHS, as he acknowledged that there were 'completely unacceptable things going on' across the country. In particular, he cited issues like 'old ladies being in corridors next to EDs [emergency departments]' and the failings of maternity units. Commenting on the £200 billion budget and getting NHS trusts to cut costs after they forecast a £6.6 billion deficit for the financial year, Sir Jim told reporters: 'The NHS is such a big part of public spending now we are pretty much maxed out on what's affordable. 'It is really now about delivering better value for money, getting more change, delivering on the getting back to reasonable productivity levels, but in a way that's human, and it's about standards and about quality.' Asked if there would be tax rises to fund the NHS 10-year health plan, he said: 'It's not been any part of our conversations that there will be a big tax raise to fund the NHS. I'm obviously not part of those political decisions, but it's not been factored in at all. He added: 'We've got a few big balls in the air around the 10-year plan, the spending review, but in the end, it will be about how we get back better value for the money that we've got. We will get some growth in the spending review, but it's never enough. 'So we'll have choices to make, the biggest choices will be about how we tackle variation and improve service standards and productivity in this next period.' Sir Jim said it was about 'trying to get beyond the things that have become a bit normalised over recent years that we would never have accepted'. He added: 'So 10 years ago, we would have never accepted old ladies being on corridors next to an EDs for hours on end and they've become normal in the NHS. We've got to get ourselves out of that, and everybody wants to get out of it. It's just very, very hard to do.' He said 'the impact and dignity of people, especially old people' of long waits on trolleys in corridors was something that he found 'awful'. The former accountant also said NHS leaders were 'all really worried about maternity' after a number of scandals and investigations into baby and maternal deaths and harms in recent years. However, he said there were issues 'in every part of the service'. 'There's lots of examples like that, where I think we've just sort of gradually moved to a point where we've accepted things that we should not really have accepted,' he added. He said he was worried about the 'desensitisation' to the poor state of the health service where staff have found a way of working around it, which he described as 'walking with a limp'. Sir Jim also said he was prepared to stand up to the Health Secretary and Government on behalf of the NHS despite overseeing the abolition of NHS England, which is being merged back into the Department of Health, over a two-year period, to give politicians more oversight. He said Mr Streeting was 'actually very good at being able to cope with country views and argument and discussion' and that the 'noisy discussions are the better discussions'. 'I have no problem telling anybody what I think. So any of you that know me, if I have a view, I'm going to express it, and if I think something's wrong, I'm going to say it,' Sir Jim added. 'But I'm very confident in the way that I've seen Wes work and his political team and the Prime Minister, that they actually don't want somebody to just go along with everything, and roll over and not say if they have a view. 'And I take that seriously. I'll absolutely be clear about what my position is, but we'll try and obviously work hard to not have big, terrible disagreements or disagreements that interfere with the mission, which is improving the service for people. So it's our job to find agreement.'
The Independent
09-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
NHS has ‘maxed out on what is affordable' – says new service chief
The NHS has 'maxed out on what is affordable', Sir Jim Mackey has said as he called on the service to 'accelerate' improvements and stamp out unacceptable care which has become 'normalised'. The new chief executive of NHS England described the 'shock and worry' of discovering that 'undeveloped' plans for the NHS in England projected a multi-billion deficit for this year. While expecting 'some growth' from the Treasury in the upcoming spending review, he said the service faces 'big choices' to 'tackle variation' and 'improve service standards'. Meanwhile, Sir Jim said he will have 'no problem' expressing his views to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Speaking at an event for the Medical Journalists Association in London, Sir Jim slammed 'unacceptable' care – particularly for the elderly, which has become 'normalised'. He also expressed concerns over staff being 'desensitised' to poor care – such as elderly people facing long waits on trolleys in A&E departments. On spending he said: 'The NHS is such a big part of public spending now we are pretty much maxed out on what's affordable. 'It is really now about delivering better value for money, getting more change, getting back to reasonable productivity levels, but in a way that's human and is about standards and about quality.' He went on: 'In the planning round, it was starting to look like, on a nearly £200 billion pound budget, we were going to go into this year with undeveloped plans – but they were plans at the time – with a £6.6 billion deficit, £2.2 billion that could come off that for deficit support. But that's still a huge deficit. 'And the shock that that was creating, the worry that was creating, the anxiety about what that meant for the economy, and the international instability that we've got, what it meant for growing a society in this country, and with that the real expectation and need for us to improve much more quickly. 'I think we could argue we've been improving gradually over recent years, but this is a time for a really big wake up moment about we need to really accelerate improvement.' He went on: 'In the end, it will be about how we get better value for money for the for the money that we've got, and we'll get some growth in the spending review, but it's never enough. 'So we'll have choices to make and the biggest choices we have to make about how we tackle variation and improve service standards and productivity in this next period.' On unacceptable care, Sir Jim said the service must 'try to get beyond things that have become a bit normalised over recent years that we would never have accepted'. He added: 'Ten years ago, we would have never accepted old ladies being on corridors next to an (emergency) department for hours on end and they have become normal in the NHS. 'We've got to get ourselves out of that, and everybody wants to get out of it.' He said that even in places 'delivering excellence' there are 'still things going on there that are completely unacceptable' as he said that driving down variation would help to improve care. Sir Jim continued: 'There's lots of examples like that where I think we just sort of gradually moved to a point where we've accepted things that we should not really have accepted, and we need to stop accepting. 'The hard bit is what we what we do about it, most people know that, the worry is when they're desensitised to it… it's actually not their problem, they have found a way of walking around it. 'Colleagues used to describe it as 'learning walk with a limp'.' Asked about independence from politicians, Sir Jim said: 'I'll have no problem telling anybody what I think – if I have a view, I'm going to express it, and if I think something's wrong, I'm going to say it. 'But I'm very confident in the way that I've seen Wes work his political team and the Prime Minister, that they actually don't want somebody to just sit, just go along with everything, and just roll over and not say if they have a they have a view, and I'll take that seriously.' Speaking about the demise of NHS England, Sir Jim also said that 'naive' to believe an organisation which 'is the biggest consumer of public resource in the country' could be political independent. 'I understood the logic at the time, I think it was probably, in hindsight, a bit naive to think that we could make something politically independent and less directly controlled by the political system for something that is the biggest consumer of public resource in the country,' he said.
