Local well being companies are asking residents of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea for his or her views on the long run form of companies for adults aged 18 to 65 with acute psychological well being wants. Their public session has been launched on twenty fourth October 2023 and can run for 14 weeks, concluding on the finish of January 2024. Health chiefs say the suggestions from native individuals and the context of the broader psychological well being technique for North West London will then inform selections on how companies will function in future.

Whilst this isn’t a session that’s being organised or run by Westminster City Council, we’d urge everybody with an curiosity in psychological well being companies in our metropolis to have interaction with the session and share their views. The session additionally consists of a lot of choices regarding the way forward for the Gordon Hospital in Pimlico.

You can view the main points of the proposals and methods to share your views by visiting the North West London Integrated Care System dedicated web pages.

Cllr Nafsika Butler-Thalassis, Westminster City Council Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and the Voluntary Sector mentioned:

Community psychological well being companies are essential, however they shouldn’t be funded on the expense of acute hospital beds. If we lose these helpful beds, we are going to by no means get them again.

Westminster has among the highest well being inequalities within the nation. Having no acute psychological well being provision within the south of the borough has put stress on different components of the system. Facilities at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, for instance, are internet hosting a number of psychological well being sufferers for prolonged intervals and in some circumstances for days at a time, for as much as twenty 4 hours in beds which can be wanted for sufferers who’re bodily ailing.

The closure of the Gordon Hospital has had a transparent affect on communities least capable of entry various assist and can proceed to take action. The finest method to look after psychological well being sufferers is in services nearer to their properties the place they’re nearer to their assist networks, which is essential to their restoration.

At a Full Council assembly held on twentieth September, all councillors backed a movement setting out considerations concerning the lack of acute psychological well being beds and the results this has had for residents and employees within the metropolis.

Councillors from both political groups called on the NHS to reopen acute mental health beds in South Westminster to make sure that the wants of native persons are met. They highlighted the significance of group psychological well being companies however had been clear that they shouldn’t be funded on the expense of acute hospital beds, and that each forms of companies are wanted to assist individuals with totally different wants and at totally different levels of their affected person journey.

Councillors have additionally heard from independent health expert, Professor Jill Manthorpe, who’s at present investigating the affect of Gordon Hospital closure. You can learn her preliminary presentation to councillors.

Also, a brand new Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee between Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has been established to scrutinise the proposed substantial variation in improvement and companies in relation to the Gordon Hospital, St Charles Mental Health Unit and Mental Health Services. Find out more details of that committee.