Camden Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) sought views on how to best organise acute mental health day care services in Camden, to make cost savings while continuing to provide good patient care. We currently commission Camden & Islington Foundation Trust to run two Mental Health Acute Day Units; one at Jules Thorn unit on the St Pancras Hospital site and one at Daleham Gardens unit in Belsize Park.
We proposed the changes because the services are currently underused and because the proposed change would not result in any patient being refused appropriate treatment. For current patients, nothing will change. No patient will have their course of treatment disrupted by changing locations. And no-one, now or in the future, will be refused an appropriate service because of this change.
The public consultation ran from 6 November 2017 to 10 January 2018 and we sought to consult on our proposal to reduce the number of Mental Health Acute Day Units from two to one and to strengthen acute care at the remaining unit. In addition, we will support more people to access Highgate Day Centre to provide care for residents with less severe mental health needs.
There was a wide response to the consultation and this has helped us to both test and strengthen our proposals. We thank everyone that took part.
It was clear from the response to our consultation that the balance of opinion felt that the Jules Thorn unit was the preferred acute day unit to remain open for a number of reasons summarised in the analysis of consultation results published today. This supports a CCG decision to proceed with this option which we intend to implement from 30 April 2018.
Our report outlines the 12 actions we will take to strengthen the change. These include:
- Camden & Islington Foundation Trust and Camden CCG will monitor the usage of Jules Thorn unit in the future and will take action to ensure that it retains sufficient capacity to address the needs of the borough.
- Camden & Islington Foundation Trust to develop referral criteria and processes between the Jules Thorn unit and the Highgate Day Centre and to ensure that Highgate Day Centre’s free 12 week service is well publicised.
- Both acute day units will discuss with patients the impact of changes and provide spaces to discuss this. Individual plans will be made with any patient with particular concerns.
The full 12 actions are available in the report here.
We intend that these changes will make the remaining services more sustainable in the future and ensure that mental health care is delivered at the right time and in the most appropriate setting.