Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust is subject to strong implicit criticism of its performance in a recent document issued by Central Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). It is no longer intending to apply for Foundation Trust status. The full report on Mental Health Services on which the document is based is ready but has not yet been released.
The Commissioning Intentions Statement sets out a broad vision for Mental Health Services in Manchester. The public can attend the next meeting of the CCG Board which will discuss the statement at approximately 3.25pm on 3rd July at Windrush Centre, 70 Alexandra Rd, M16 7WD. Before the meeting starts at 2pm, members of the public can make comments to the Board which will then be considered during the formal part of the meeting.
The Statement contains the following summarised aims which are to:
- Ensure a local and resilient acute care system, as there are many signs that this functions poorly at present: overspill placements, lengths of stay, disputed interfaces, and delays in accessing beds
- Develop and implement robust protocols for management of key service interfaces, relying on clarity and standards, rather than personal relationships
- Ensure that service access arrangements work as clearly, quickly and effectively as possible, via single points of access which take full responsibility for the referral handling process
- Develop a series of care pathways, agreed between commissioners and providers, setting out the options and routes through services for each mental health problem
- Develop an agreed framework between commissioners and providers as to approaches to the management of clinical risks and recovery, to ensure that proper concern for safety does not lead to excessively risk-averse practice
- Undertake an investment prioritisation process, shared between commissioners and providers, and based on open-book information, including consideration of redirecting resources from older people to working age adults, from less acute to more acute needs, and within CAMHS services
- Ensure that all performance management of mental health services is based on open-book information, including full details of infrastructure, outcomes and safety
- Ensure that standards for clinical communications are established,communicated, and rigorously implemented, both formal communications around individual patients, and informal liaison between clinicians
- Develop a programme to improve the integration of mental health and general and acute care in Manchester, encompassing acute hospital liaison, and management of long term co-morbid conditions
- Develop a programme, across commissioners and providers, to improve the integration between statutory and third sector organisations, with a particular focus on Manchester’s diverse communities
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