| Government
rapped over poor take-up of computerised CBT
March
6, 2009
by Staff Reporter
......
Computerised
cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT) is fully available in just
nine of 152 primary care trusts in England, according to new figures.
Beating the Blues, a computer-based cognitive behavioural therapy
package, was approved three years ago by the National Institute
for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for people with mild depression
and anxiety.
John
Smith, director of Ultrasis, the company behind Beating the Blues
and which provided the figures, told a national newspaper that the
government has been "taking credit" for a policy whose
implementation it has failed to ensure.
"I don't think the government have chased PCTs up on this,"
Smith said.
He claimed CCBT could cost as little as £30 per session and
could save the NHS millions every year.
"If
the NICE binding guidance was followed there would be a cost benefit
to the NHS of £126m a year," he told the Guardian newspaper.
However,
care services minister Phil Hope said there were no grounds for
suggesting that CCBT was not a priority.
"Primary care trusts are obliged to provide funding for Nice-recommended
CCBT packages where clinicians want to use them.
"We expect that PCTs will roll out this service according to
local needs, but clinicians are best placed to decide what treatments
to use for their patients."
Nice also approved the
FearFighter programme for panic attacks and phobia.
Some
clinicians have criticised
CCBT,
which can be provided at GP surgeries, as "dehumanising".
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