7:36am Saturday 28th January 2012
By Richard Catton
MENTAL health services in Selby are desperately in need of investment, according to one of the region’s leading charities.
David Smith, chief executive of York and District MIND, was speaking only days before responsibility of mental health services in York, Selby and Easingwold is taken over by Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust.
Mr Smith welcomed the handover and said he was impressed with the plans Leeds had for services in our region, but said patients were “crying out for more services” in Selby.
He said: “As part of this transfer, we hope the needs of people in Selby will be identified and more resources will be focussed on Selby.
“There’s no money targeted at Selby. In fact, it’s one of our priorities this year to focus on Selby and get more money in there.”
On Friday, the government’s regulator of NHS foundation trusts, Monitor, gave the final go ahead for the formation of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, merging mental health and learning disabilities in Leeds, York, Selby, Tadcaster and Easingwold and some county wide services across North Yorkshire.
The takeover comes following a tendering process and will see NHS North Yorkshire and York handover running of the services to the new trust on Wednesday.
Speaking of the transfer, Mr Smith said he thought it was a good thing. “We are hoping the transfer will allow us to retain some of the areas where quality has been outstanding in York, but we want to learn from Leeds to make sure our services are more recovery focussed, such as helping people in their community rather than treatment in hospital.”
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