Signatures 229 total
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Name: Chris Reynolds on Apr 5, 2006Comments: We must all pull together to fight these unjustified cutsFlag
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Name: Mandy Lawrence on Apr 5, 2006Comments: I live in Bedfordshire and we share the same SHA. Am concerned for people in Herts and what will happen in Bedfordshire in the futureFlag
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Name: Susan Francombe on Apr 6, 2006Comments: MARKYATE The closing of St Julian's and reduction of in-patient facilities will have a serious detrimental effect on mental health patients and their carersFlag
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Name: Anonymous on Apr 6, 2006Comments: I am like all others involved in mental health staggered to find cuts are being proposed in an underfunded service.Flag
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Name: Joy Sheppard on Apr 6, 2006Comments: Putting patients at risk through substantial cuts in Mental Health services is disgraceful.Flag
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Name: Maureen Monckton on Apr 10, 2006Comments: good luck, the mental health system is at the bottom of the list out here in Australia for funding.Flag
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Name: Dave Prout on Apr 12, 2006Comments: St. Julian's Ward saved my life, and now it is closing ! We need more beds, not less. Care in the community is a sick joke.Flag
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Name: Anonymous on Apr 13, 2006Comments: I cant believe St Julians is gonna be closed. Its not the best place, but where are the 22 inpatients supposed to go The other units are already full. I also disagree with all the other cuts.Flag
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Name: Marcia Anthony on Apr 15, 2006Comments: newport pagnell bucks i have a brother living in welwyn garden city with brain damage who recieves no suport what so everFlag
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Name: Bob Walker on Apr 21, 2006Comments: The cuts have already had a devastating effect on clients and carers!Flag
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Name: Barry Keen on Apr 26, 2006Comments: Rickmansworth. These cuts will affect the well being of the most vulnerable people in our society and in the long term will cost more - both financially and emotionally than by keeping or even extending these servicesFlag
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Name: Roger Leverett on Apr 27, 2006Comments: The government should realise that mental health is just as important as every other service.Flag
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Name: Susie Keen on Apr 27, 2006Comments: Mental health should not be the cinderella service of the NHS. We need more money not less! We are the fourth richest nation in the world. There is absolutely no excuse.Flag
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Name: Ghislaine Wallis on Apr 27, 2006Comments: Monies should not be taken out of Hertfordshire's Mental Health to fund other services.Flag
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Name: Brian Johnson on Apr 27, 2006Comments: I am particularly concerned about the closure of the St Julians Ward, and the cuts in the day services budget. I suffered mental breakdown last year as a consequence of Bipolar Affective Disorder and attempted suicide. I was admitted to St Julians Ward and stayed there for 8 weeks. I needed that time to reflect on my situation away from the pressures of normal life and to allow the doctors free reign to sort out my medication needs and correctly assess me. Without this time out, I am pretty sure I would have attemprted suicide again and may have not been able to write these comments now. You can't get a quart in a pint pot, you can not say that places will be made at other wards which were not there before. Certainly it will cost money to do so, and certainly it will reduce the comfort of the people staying there due to overcrowding. The net effect is that the benefit to the patient is reduced or even lost. Regarding day services, I am dependent on the kind of services offered such as "Confidence Building Courses" for my rehabilitation, which in my case has been a slow process. I am already being told that no firm dates can now be given for further activities in which I have expressed an interest. I am worried that Mental Healthcare is not being taken seriously and is being seen as a soft way of saving money. For people with Mental Health Problems such as myself, this is no joke.Flag
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Name: Anonymous on Apr 29, 2006Comments: Letter to the Editor Hertfordshire Advertiser Mental health services Sir - I was delighted to observe that the Scrutiny Committee which met in St Alban’s City Council Chamber on 27th April 2006 have rejected the Government proposals that mental health services in Hertfordshire be cut by 5% in order to avoid a situation where patient needs would get worse and lead to future problems for carers, healthcare providers and voluntary groups. It is encouraging that the issue and unique situation in Hertfordshire might be addressed to the Secretary of State for Health. Examples stated at the meeting included the patient who was arrested and transferred to Holloway because there was no bed place at the nearest residential ward at massive cost to the taxpayer. The innocent commuter who experiences PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) injury 6 months after the London Bombings. The car crash victim who suffers PTSD injury and his life is left distraught. The diabetic patient who suffers a life threatening hypo attack with violent convulsions and seizure and is branded as a perpetrator of domestic violence by his insurers and estranged from his daughter for 12 years to cover up negligence. The asthma patient who suffers a life threatening asthma attack. The student who volunteers to be part of a clinical drug trial and almost dies when the trial goes horribly wrong at Northwick Park Hospital. The innocent bystander caught up in a train crash or a violent crime. Dietary and respiratory issues concerning patients with learning difficulties requiring home assessment and support. The patient who benefited from his experience at Earthworks. These are all patients who are left with lifelong mental scars. They are not violent persons who have committed crimes of violence and require to be detained. They are normal persons who due to unfortunate circumstances over which they had no control are left emotionally and mentally scarred for life and are defrauded of an acceptable level of life’s qualities. Any suggestion to close down or reduce the clinical psychological service in Hertfordshire and other areas is defraud of these patient’s entitlement to NHS healthcare and a breach of Her Majesty’s Government NHS provisions. The need for more not less psychological support for some diabetic and depressed patients is vital to the wellbeing of patients, families and carers in need of psychological counselling now recognised as a key care area in diabetes management this being a typical trauma patient example. What is the point of NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) publishing guidelines confirming patients require 8 – 12 sessions of cognitive therapy to overcome their emotional injuries if the resources are not available to implement the guidelines At the online debate website www.diabetesdialogue.org.uk last year there was a large section about psychological support. I attended the House of Commons opening in March 2005 and was invited to include a download of the first report on our diabetes website at www.dri-ft.co.uk Diabetes Research Information – Facts for Treatment. We have done this under Learning and Support and addressed issues of hypoglycaemia, mental impairment, cognitive function and violence. The way human insulin was negligently prescribed to treat diabetic patients for their chronic condition form the mid 1980’s affected me and many other patients with violent seizure, convulsions and diabetic coma, and was similar to the experiences of the clinical trial victims at Northwick Park Hospital who experienced a violent reaction and organ failure to the experimental drug TGN1412. There are now serious questions about the role of the MHRA in granting licences to pharmaceutical companies and questions about the clinical information provided to the medical profession and patients. The Chief Executive of MIND resigned in March 2004 from his position on the SSRI Expert Group at the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) because side effects of Seroxat prescribed for depression were suppressed for a decade by the MHRA. Novo Nordisk have announced that animal insulin injected daily to treat 20,000 UK diabetic patients will be removed from the UK marketplace in 2007 and have refused to hand over the formula to ensure continued supply from an alternative source. An alternative supplier keeps running out of insulin due to production problems but at least there is an alternative supplier. Do we want 20,000 cases of violent hypos and more unexplained deaths and car crashes caused by diabetic hypos in the UK from 2008 8 diabetic patients aged in their 20's - 30's died in Hertfordshire alone from June 2004 - August 2005 and were found dead in bed. What a waste of young lives. ‘PTSD develops following a stressful event or situation of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature, which is likely to cause pervasive distress in almost anyone’. Up to 30% of those who suffer a traumatic event may develop PTSD. All age groups are at risk. The Direct Access Psychological Service at Watford alone receives 500 referrals per annum. Expensive psychotropic drug expenditure could be reduced if funding for cognitive therapy counselling were to be increased. We have democratically elected a government and councils to manage our lives but the pharmaceutical industry charges the NHS massive amounts of money for expensive drugs some of which are incorrectly prescribed and leave patients in mental turmoil when things go wrong. If 400,000 diabetic patients treated with expensive human and analogue insulin were switched back to natural animal insulin prescribed from 1922 to the early 1980’s to treat diabetes the savings to the NHS would be in the order of £90 million per annum and quality of life for many of these patients would improve. Perhaps the Department of Health and the Secretary of State for Health should consider that the 5% funding shortfall be collected from the pharmaceutical industry by way of an annual insurance tax to be levied on the pharmaceutical industry in order to ensure continued access to a much needed communal mental health support service in Hertfordshire and throughout the UK.Flag
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Name: C J Shaw on Apr 29, 2006Comments: I help out with Mind in Dacorum based in Hemel Hempstead and see the need for the provision of more not less financial support for NHS Mental Health services.Flag
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Name: Dr Chris Manning on Apr 29, 2006Comments: The planned course of action flies directly in the face of many current Govt initiatives and policy...including Access to Psychological Therapies, New Ways of Working in Mental Health, Payment by Results and the drive towards more primary and community care interventions (that will be driven both by Practice-Based Commissioning and Our Health, Our Care, Our Say. One has to suspect that, yet again, Mental Health Services are being deconstructed and destroyed to pave the way for the next "opportunity" represented by Foundation Trust Status.Flag
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Name: Anonymous on Apr 29, 2006Comments: As the parent of a service user I am totally opposed to the cuts in mental health in Herts. Mental health problems are predicted to increase in adults and children over the next decade; The population in Herts is also expected to expand with proposed housing developments. Now is the time to further develop, not destroy, preventive and early intervention services, and community mental health teams. communityservices ies outstrip willFlag
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Name: Stewart Beever on Apr 29, 2006Comments: Staff member,DAS,HPT - one of the mental heath services threatened with closure.Live SW LondonFlag
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Name: Dr John Hyde on Apr 29, 2006Comments: I totally oppose the £5 million cuts to Herts Mental health budget.Flag
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Name: Mr Michael Parr on Apr 29, 2006Comments: more money should be put into the system, and more well trained individuals should be posted, in order to stop a generation of damage to occurFlag
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