MENTAL health services across the Isle of Wight and Hampshire could eventually be run by a single NHS trust, after bosses admitted "fragmented" working is affecting patients.
A proposal has been drawn up, following a review, calling for a new Trust, 'created for all community and mental health services across Hampshire and Isle of Wight, with locally focussed divisions.'
It has already been considered in Southampton, where Dr Derek Sandeman, chief medical officer at the two counties' Integrated Care System (what used to be called the CCG), said mental health care is under "considerable stress" and the complex way it is structured had 'inevitably resulted in gaps'.
A new NHS trust is due to be created by April 2024, but a business case has not yet been signed off.
For the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, Lesley Stevens, director of community, mental health and learning disabilities services, said: "We’ve made good progress improving the services we provide over the last few years, thanks to the hard work and commitment of our teams.
"A lot of the improvement we have seen is down to the positive way we have worked with our partners at Solent NHS Trust, the people who use our services, and the wider community.
"Plans to bring community, mental health and learning disability services closer together on the Island and across Hampshire is welcome news both for the people we support and our staff.
"We look forward to engaging with colleagues, services users and our community to shape the future of these important services.
This week, Dr Sandeman told councillors in Southampton, the pressure on NHS services is: "impacting on patients' care. The NHS is struggling everywhere.
"To pick up any one service and say this is an area of particular concern is difficult at the moment, given the stress wherever one might look, but actually mental health really has been struggling.
"Mental health was struggling with capacity prior to Covid. But if you look at demand, over time, it has grown much more than any other service and demand capacity is really constrained."
- On the Isle of Wight, in 2020, improvements in mental health care were being celebrated after an inspection and there was more praise for the service in 2021, when St Mary's Hospital won a 'good' rating and recorded more improvement in mental health services.
Dr Sandeman said: "The reason for commissioning the independent... into these services was a realisation that we were watching a service under considerable stress and that was impacting on patients' care and we needed to look at that and consider was there a case for change."
Southampton Councillor, Cllr Lorna Fielker, raised concerns the plans were not widely consulted on with councils.
She said: "I remain concerned - I don't see in here (the report) how our needs for our population are represented, how we're able to influence that and have those discussions."
However, Dr Sandeman said the plan was not about cutting funding.
The review found demand on mental health services could increase by 10 per cent within three years - all while there are major shortages in staffing.
Speaking at Southampton's Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel last week Ron Shields, Chief Executive at Southern Health, said: "There isn't a magic wand that all of the problems we face, the money, the rest of it will be sorted - but the working together will make things better from the public resource we have and the working in communities.
The plans are set to be considered by the county's Integrated Care Board next month.
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