Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, commenting on the NHS report on Out of Area Placements In Mental Health Services for February, said:

“These statistics show yet another rise in the number of mental health patients being treated hundreds of miles away from their homes due to lack of beds in their local area. These are some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and the fact that some are having to go over 180 miles from where they live just to get a bed creates extra pressures on them and their families.

“Last week’s NHS Five Year Forward View report says that some areas of the NHS have:  ‘…been living off bail-outs arbitrarily taken from other parts of the country or from services such as mental health’.  Using mental health budgets to plug financial black holes elsewhere is leading to issues like these out of area placements.

“The Tory government has talked a lot about parity of esteem between physical and mental health but the reality is simply not matching the rhetoric. It’s time the Government ended the warm words and started giving mental health services the money they need.”