HC Deb 23 November 1999 vol 339 cc464-6
9. Helen Jackson (Sheffield, Hillsborough)

What plans he has to improve mental health services. [98934]

The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Alan Milburn)

Modernising mental health services is one of the Government's key health priorities. We are increasing investment and setting new national standards, and now propose to change mental health legislation.

Helen Jackson

Does the Secretary of State agree that there is still a great deal of fear and stigma attached to mental illness, which is often characterised by loss of employment and consequent loss of income for families, and that the burden and costs of care frequently fall on relatives and on the communities where the patient lives? Does he agree that extra funds for community health care should be a top priority?

Mr. Milburn

My hon. Friend is right. There is a great deal of stigma attached to mental health, but the truth is that one in four people in our country will, at some point in their life, have a mental health problem. It is true also that, for far too long, mental health services have been outside the mainstream of the national health services and social services. We are seeking to put that right. I do not pretend, and I certainly do not give an assurance to my hon. Friend, that those problems can be solved overnight, because they cannot. The state of the mental health services that we inherited was simply deplorable, but we shall make them better. We are making them better step by step.

We are investing extra resources. As the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), has just explained to the House, an extra £700 million will be invested this year, next year and the following year to modernise mental health services, not only in hospitals but in the community—because, as we know, the majority of people with a mental health problem are treated in the community. We have to make sure that those services are appropriate, fast and fair, just as we want fast and fair services throughout the whole of the NHS.

Mr. Nick St. Aubyn (Guildford)

Owing to the pressures of life in the fast lane of Britain's economy, mental health services are just as much in demand in our most affluent areas as they are in those that are less-well-off. Does the Secretary of State recognise that? Will the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation report on the matter, and if so, when does he expect it to do so? Will he take account of the fact that, since this Government came to power, the amount of money allocated to my area has fallen, relatively speaking, with the result that mental health services are under severe pressure and are being closed in Guildford?

Mr. Milburn

I would very much like to see the figures to which the hon. Gentleman refers. The Conservative Front-Bench team are always calling for less money for the NHS, describing our spending on mental health and the NHS generally as madness, reckless and irresponsible, yet Conservative Back Benchers are always calling for more spending in their own areas. The truth is that it is more money for the NHS with this Government, and less with the Tories. Since they are always asking for an honest debate about health service priorities and spending, it is time they started to itemise, treatment by treatment and service by service, the spending that they think is reckless and mad, which services they would cut and which patients would have to put their money where the hon. Gentleman's mouth is.

Mr. George Stevenson (Stoke-on-Trent, South)

Is my right hon. Friend aware that progress in improving mental health services in north Staffordshire is made much more difficult by the fact that the area receives £8.2 million below its basic target funding? Although we in north Staffordshire very much welcome the additional resources that the Government have provided for specific NHS initiatives, what assurances can my right hon. Friend give that serious anomalies in basic target funding will be addressed as a matter of urgency, so that we may make the progress in mental health services that we desperately need?

Mr. Milburn

My hon. Friend has raised this issue with me on previous occasions. Of course we recognise that we must have a funding system that not only ensures that health providers throughout the country get the resources that they need to modernise mental health and other services, but represents a fair allocation of resources. That is why, last year, we announced a fundamental review of the way in which health resources are allocated. That work is going on now, and I expect a report in a year or so. It parallels the review of local government methods of allocation being undertaken by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister. I expect the consequence to be not just more money for the NHS, which is what the Government are providing, but a fairer means of allocating extra resources.

Dr. Liam Fox (Woodspring)

Last year, the Secretary of State said: As now, no one will be denied the drugs that they need. That is a guarantee."—[Official Report, 30 June 1998; Vol. 315, c. 143.] Will he guarantee that none of the new antipsychotic drugs have been denied to patients as a result of their cost?

Mr. Milburn

The antipsychotic drugs are one of the new forms of drugs and treatment that we have referred to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. The hon. Gentleman knows that, so I do not know why he raises the issue. He also knows that we have referred to NICE other drugs and treatments for cancer, coronary heart disease, hepatitis C and multiple sclerosis precisely so that, in future, we can deal with the lottery of care which his party was responsible for creating. It was his party that fragmented the NHS to such an extent that a national health service ceased to exist in all but name.

Dr. Fox

I apologise for asking a question that the Secretary of State found it awkward to answer, but I thought that that was the point of Question Time. His answer was just as evasive and nonsensical as many of those given earlier by his colleagues on the Front Bench. Psychiatrists are telling us that they cannot prescribe the new drugs as a result of financial restrictions. The drugs have fewer side effects and result in better patient compliance, which is especially important in the treatment of schizophrenic patients. When prescription is refused on cost grounds, it is a failure to fulfil the duty of care, bad for the patient and dangerous in the community. Are not antipsychotic drugs, beta interferon and the new anti-cancer drugs being routinely denied to NHS patients on grounds of cost? Is it not true that Ministers are administering the NHS with a lethal cocktail of complacency and incompetence? Their words are meaningless and their promises worthless, because they say one thing and do another.

Mr. Milburn

I suppose that was the soundbite. On the issue of the new generation of antipsychotics, the hon. Gentleman knows full well that the Government have made available extra resources to health authorities throughout the country precisely to enable the new treatments to be prescribed. He says that he knows best about the treatments, but it is precisely because we have referred the issue to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, that we shall, for the first time in the history of the NHS, have clear and authoritative guidance on what works best and which treatments work for which patients. The fact that we have done that signifies the priority that we attach to ensuring that patients with mental health problems receive the sort of treatment that they deserve.