Reading Liberal Democrats

The Royal Berkshire Hospital is among 80% of NHS hospital Trusts who have no idea whether they have treated any veterans under the Government’s priority treatment scheme, according to research by the Liberal Democrats.

Freedom Of Information requests sent to England’s 170 Acute Trusts found that, of the 118 which responded, 94 had no records or did not collect information on the effectiveness or results of the scheme. This included the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

The research also found that:

• Five Acute Trusts were unaware of the scheme or did not have it in place
• One said they were still awaiting guidance from the MOD
• One said they had knowledge of only 1 veteran having been considered for priority treatment
• Just three were able to provide figures – 2 of these had recorded a single patient each, while the third had treated 15 under the scheme in 10 years

Requests were also sent to 146 PCTs, of which 84 replied. Of these:

• 67 (including Berkshire West PCT) had no records or don’t collect the information.
• Three were able to provide figures – of these two had recorded one patient under the scheme, the other had had two requests.
• One said they were unaware of the scheme.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat prospective MP for Reading East, Cllr Gareth Epps, said:

“Veterans who have put their lives on the line for this country deserve better. If this priority treatment scheme is to be more than meaningless spin, Ministers need to get their act together. They need to ensure that this scheme starts to deliver.

“These findings provide no comfort that the Government veterans’ treament scheme is functioning. How can anyone have any confidence that Labour takes veterans’ treatment seriously if our local NHS Trusts have no idea of numbers treated or results?”

Editor’s Notes:

1. A spreadsheet is available on request giving a full breakdown of responses by Acute Trust and by Primary Care Trust.
2. The first Annual Report on the Governments’ Command Paper on services provided to the Forces, their families and veterans, published on 19 November, reported that:
   • The Royal British Legion considers that ‘little effective progress has been made in the past year’ on the veterans’ priority treatment scheme, with delivery remaining inadequate and awareness low.
   • In England and Wales, 33% of GPs questioned knew nothing at all about priority treatment for War Pensioners
   • Of those GPs who had heard of priority treatment, most (58%) heard about it from the media, 7% from the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency or elsewhere in the MOD, and 16% via the NHS
   • 10% of GPs who had heard of priority treatment had informed secondary care providers of a veteran’s entitlement to priority treatment in the previous 12 months See pp 23-4 of the 2009 report

3. Further information on the veterans’ priority treatment scheme can be found on the Government’s Veterans UK site
4. Berkshire West PCT’s response reads as follows:- ‘
   With regard to requests made to the PCT for funding of individual treatment that the requests we have recorded on our systems (which – to reiterate – would relate only to those treatments where the service is not routinely funded and therefore the case for exceptionality needs to be considered by the PCT) are not categorised to include war veteran status. It is therefore not possible to supply this information related to individual funding requests.’
5. The Royal Berkshire NHS Trust replied as follows:- ‘This information is not recorded on any Trust Information System.’

Martin Salter’s Lib Dem opponant in Reading West, Patrick Murray, launched a stinging rebuke to the Labour MP after his recent comments on mental health.

Patrick Murray, who suffered from depression for several years in the late 90s and experienced first hand the results of New Labour’s disastrous mental health policy stated:

“The Labour Government has had ten years to change mental health provision in this country. Mental health is still a cinderalla service in New Labour’s Britain. In some parts of the country the wait for counselling on the NHS is measured in years rather than weeks. Drugs have been poorly regulated. Funding has been much lower than comparable physical health services. It’s no good for Salter and New Labour to suddenly discover this problem. I’ve lost a close friend to suicide and seen many people abandoned by the system. For some of us it’s not just about a photocall- it’s been our real life experience and we’ve repeatedly been let down by Labour.”

“The Labour Government’s only response for almost a decade was to attempt to introduce a new Mental Health Act. This was an horrific piece of legislation which would have deterred people from seeking treatment and criminalised those who were suffering. The obsession they have with Daily Mail approved legislation left many people alone and without desperately needed help.”

“We need mandatory training for GPs, often the first port of call for many people, more effective drug regulation as seen by the scandals over SSRIs- a drug I was placed on for a time that was later shown to increase suicidal tendencies, anxiety and depression amongst younger patients- and a huge increase in the availability of counselling. I’ve been incredibly lucky to make it through but many others aren’t. Warm words are not enough- we need action.”

Editor’s Note:

Patrick Murray recently gave a speech to the Lib Dem conference on his experiences during a debate on Mental Health provision. This can be viewed here: YouTube video