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£8m cut in health budget
MENTAL health chiefs have approved £8 million cuts in the run-up to becoming a foundation trust.
The massive savings were voted through at a meeting of Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust board on Thursday.
The cuts will mean closures of some acute wards and a day hospital. It is also planned to discharge some patients early from residential care.
Tottenham Mews walk-in centre, in Bloomsbury, will be shut and services withdrawn from St Luke’s Hospital in Muswell Hill.
Patrick Dalton, acting chairman of Camden Mental Health Consortium, a patients’ group, warned that the changes will mean short hospital stays and staff cuts. He added: “It’s going to mean limitations on services and people will feel that eventually.”
Trust chief executive Wendy Wallace defended the cuts, saying: “This is happening because, like all public sector organisations, we have to break even and we’ll have less money next year.”
She added: “It does feel like it’s achievable but it’s painful.”
Ms Wallace said that patients would only be discharged from hospital when they were well.
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