Commenting on the BBC Panorama programme on issues in Mental Health services in the Norfolk and Suffolk Mental Health Trusts, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Member for Mental Health, Barbara Keeley MP said:

“Despite years of Tory Government promises, funding for NHS Mental Health services has not increased but has actually fallen by £150 million.

“At the Norfolk and Suffolk Mental Health Trust, funding cuts led to frontline community teams being disbanded, loss of experienced staff and the cutting of 136 inpatient psychiatric beds. The Panorama programme showed what can go wrong when patients in crisis cannot be admitted to an inpatient bed.

“It is disturbing that while the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary talk about transforming mental health services, what families actually saw in Norfolk and Suffolk is an absence of support and no beds available during a crisis. It is time for action from Tory Ministers, not warm words which fail patients and their families.”