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Cameron criticised
over mental health omission
August
28, 2009
......
Conservative
leader David Cameron failed to mention his party's plans for mental
health policy during a wide-ranging speech on NHS reform last week.
The Rethink charity has written
to Mr Cameron expressing disappointment that his speech covered
16 issues, including infectious diseases and accident and emergency
services, but failed to mention mental health.
This is despite it being the biggest
single spending area in the NHS, taking up nearly a third of GPs’
time.
The letter says: “We were
disappointed that in a speech discussing the future of the NHS and
how to deliver a standard of quality healthcare that matches patient
expectations, mental healthcare was not mentioned once.”
One mental health trust chief executive
was reported in the Health Service Journal as saying he was “greatly
worried” that the Conservatives had so far said little about
mental health, given their chances of winning next year’s
general election.
"We don’t want to be
misleading clinicians by saying we’re going to develop services
and then have to backtrack,” the chief executive told the
magazine.
A Conservative Party spokeswoman
said Mr Cameron was away due to the parliamentary recess but would
respond to the Rethink letter in due course.
See also:
Service
provision
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