Care services to cut spending

A report on care services stated that each of the 472 beds set aside in the county costs £65,000.

The review, carried out by Tessa Crilly, from King's College, London, looked at the spending on mental health in 2001-02.

Now, a three-year action plan has been drawn up in a bid to reduce spending and the latest figures will be released next week. It revealed that the mental health budget for last year was almost £60 million, or £77 per head.

Ms Crilly reported: "There has been concern for some time that the amount spent by the NHS on mental health across West Sussex was relatively high.

"But one person in four has a mental health problem. Four out of ten visits to a GP are for mental health problems."

Until April last year, mental health services across the county were provided by three trusts but these were dissolved and replaced by the West Sussex Health and Social Care NHS Trust, which inherited a £5 million deficit. In addition, this year the trust was also required to save £2.6 million after failing to receive significant extra cash from the Government.

Ms Crilly said: "In-patient care for mental health is always expensive. The costs per bed in West Sussex are about average - about £65,000 per bed a year - but the costs per patients are high because people stay longer than average.

"The reason for this seems to be because West Sussex Health and Social Care NHS Trust has more long-stay, continuing care and rehabilitation beds than other trusts.

"There is no shortage of in-patient beds. The trust has 472. Based on the needs of the population and the low deprivation rates in West Sussex, this is perhaps 26 beds more than strictly necessary."

A spokesman for the trust said: "We want to do everything we can to balance the books without cutting services.

"We have to get a proper plan in place to make sure we are financially sound but in a way that doesn't compromise services. You cannot do that overnight. It will take several years."