Shropshire Star

Hundreds waiting months to get mental health treatment in Shropshire

Hundreds of people in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin waited more than three months for NHS psychological therapy, new figures have revealed.

Published

Mental health charity Mind called the figures worrying, and warned excessive waits between sessions could impact recovery from mental health conditions.

NHS Digital data shows 310 people in the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group area waited longer than three months for a second therapy appointment between February 2018 and January 2019.

A further 240 waited between 28 and 90 days, meaning one in five people having NHS therapy in Shropshire faced so-called ‘hidden waits’ of over a month between appointments. More than half of people having NHS therapy in Telford and Wrekin faced waits of more than a month between appointments.

The data shows 225 people in the Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group area waited longer than three months for a second therapy appointment. A further 1,025 waited between 28 and 90 days.

Guidance

NHS guidance says ‘services should guard against hidden waits within a course of treatment’, although there is no official target for second appointments.

Health commissioners in the county say they are aware of the waiting times from first to second treatment and are working with Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to improve this for patients.

In a joint statement, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin CCGs said: “As part of these improvements the CCGs have invested money to increase the levels of staff that deliver psychological therapies where we know the waiting times are higher.

“We are aiming to see improvements with the number of patients waiting over 90 days reducing to under 10 per cent by this September.”

Geoff Heyes, head of health policy at Mind, said: “We find it really worrying that people are facing such long waits between their first and second therapy appointments, meaning they are more likely to become more unwell.

“Long gaps also impact your ability to build a relationship with your therapist, and worrying that you’ve not been offered regular enough appointments can have a hugely detrimental impact on recovery.

“National guidance is clear people should not have to wait an excessive time between the first and second appointment, so local services should be striving to give people timely support.”

NHS England’s Improved Access to Psychological Therapy programme aims to improve therapy services for a range of conditions, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress.

Targets state that 75 per cent of people in the programme should have their first treatment appointment within six weeks of referral, and 95 per cent within 18 weeks.

In Telford and Wrekin, 3,845 people had their first therapy session over the 12-month period, and 98 per cent of them were in treatment within six weeks of being referred, while 99.9 per cent were seen within 18 weeks.

In Shropshire, 3,630 people had their first therapy session within the year.

A total of 97 per cent of them were in treatment within six weeks of being referred, while 98.6 per cent were seen within 18 weeks.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists, which co-authored the guidance for the IAPT programme, said it was pleased that targets were being met, but acknowledged that improvements were needed.

An NHS England spokesperson said: “As Mind and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have acknowledged, the widely agreed waiting time targets for referral to first treatment for psychological therapies have not just consistently been met but also exceeded the national standards – there is also an unprecedented level of transparency when it comes to all IAPT data, meaning that none of the waits are in fact ‘hidden’.”