'Again PCT evidence is found to be false'
CLOSING the Margaret Stanhope Centre will leave the Burton area with ‘the worst provision of mental health beds in the country’, the town’s MP has claimed.
Andrew Griffiths spoke after rubbishing figures published by South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) in support of their proposal to axe the unit.
The Tory had earlier studied daily bed occupancy data for the Margaret Stanhope for the period April 2010 to August 2011 provided by the foundation trust.
He had also examined benchmarking figures for South Staffordshire for the first two quarters of the 2011-12 financial year compiled by Mental Health Strategies and released by the PCT.
Mr Griffiths (pictured) said there were major problems with both data sets.
The daily occupancy figures failed to tally with previously supplied monthly figures and yielded lower occupancy rates for South Staffordshire as a whole.
For example, while the monthly data showed an occupancy rate in June 2010 of 100.2 per cent, the figure was 95.9 per cent under the daily figures.
The benchmarking data did not match up with information on mental health beds and the population provided by the PCT, undermining its claim that it appeared to have more beds than comparable trusts.
The MP said the PCT claimed roughly 31 adult acute inpatient beds per 100,000 weighted population, while his analysis showed it had just 13.2 beds.
“Yet again the PCT claim they have evidence to prove something and when that evidence is examined it’s found to be false,” Mr Griffiths said.
“Why should we trust any of the other claims they make when those claims have been shown to be bogus?”
He said the figures proved the point he made in October at the public consultation meeting in Burton — that South Staffordshire has among the lowest provision of mental health beds in the country.
“The PCT have been able to provide no information to the contrary,” Mr Griffiths said.
“If it’s true we have so few beds, how on earth can they claim that it’s safe to close even more?
“It’s my belief that the loss of the beds at the Margaret Stanhope would give us the worst provision of mental health beds anywhere in the country — and that is putting the safety of the public at risk.”
Mr Griffiths has written to Neil Carr, chief executive of the foundation trust, demanding explanations.
On the occupancy figures, he said: “I would be grateful if you could investigate this discrepancy and let me know how, exactly, these occupancy figures were obtained, by whom, and what checks and balances ensured that data collecting was accurate.”
Mr Griffiths asked for similar clarification of the benchmarking figures.
