‘Discrimination’ claim as ‘40 new hospitals’ snubs mental health

A chief executive has compared a lack of investment into mental health estate to ‘institutionalised discrimination’, after no new schemes were accepted on to the ‘40 new hospitals’ programme.

HSJ revealed that almost 50 capital projects from mental health trusts attempted to win one of the final places on the “new hospitals programme”, but all were taken by new acute schemes.

Some of the trusts that submitted unsuccessful bids are using buildings which are more than 100 years old and were constructed without modern care practices in mind. Many of the bids raised safety concerns about the current estates.

Joe Rafferty, chief executive of Mersey Care Foundation Trust, told HSJ: “If there’s been a priority order, mental health has been at the back of the queue.

“It’s almost a sort of institutionalised discrimination in a way… there is a risk that the system itself is stigmatised or discriminated against mental health patients.

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Source: HSJ, 31 May 2023