MP complains about trust's figures failure
BURTON’S MP has complained to the health secretary about NHS chiefs’ failure to provide ‘vital information’ about their proposed closure of the Margaret Stanhope Centre.
Andrew Griffiths wrote to Andrew Lansley about South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s inability to clarify the unit’s full bed occupancy data or claim that figures appeared to show it had ‘a larger bed base than most other trusts’ surveyed.
The Tory’s dramatic move ratcheted up the pressure on health chiefs just days before the end of the four-month public consultation on their plans to close the Margaret Stanhope as part of an overhaul of inpatient psychiatric care.
“Given that I’ve been asking for the original figures for months and they’ve had a further week to clarify their own figures and that the consultation closes in less than a week, I have no choice but to make a formal complaint to the Secretary of State,” Mr Griffiths told the Mail.
In his letter to Mr Lansley, the MP said he first requested 2010-11 monthly occupancy figures for all inpatient mental health beds in South Staffordshire on November 2, only to send a second request 15 days later after receiving no response.
He received data from South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) on November 22, but only for April 2010 and August 2011 — not the full year requested.
Mr Griffiths was given figures for April 2010 to August 2011 by the PCT two days later.
The MP told Mr Lansley he then requested daily bed occupancy data from the foundation trust for April 2010 to August 2011 on November 29, only to be told by the trust on January 10 that his request had been ‘overlooked’.
Although health chiefs told Mr Griffiths the data would be available on January 19 or 20, they emailed him on the 19th to say the data would not be available until the 23rd — and then would only be for September to December, 2011.
Asked to provide figures by January 24 or face a complaint to the health secretary, the trust complied — but again only after providing partial data.
Mr Griffiths told Mr Lansley there was a ‘discrepancy’ between the monthly and daily figures which ‘raised questions about the veracity of the data’ and had ‘serious implications’.
The MP said trust figures also failed to substantiate a ‘claim’ made in a benchmarking report drawn up by Mental Health Strategies that the trust provided about 31 acute adult inpatient beds per 100,000 weighted population — the highest in the report.
Mr Griffiths told Mr Lansley the data ‘seemed to demonstrate just 13.2 beds per 100,000’ — among the lowest of those surveyed.
The trust had yet to provide clarification, he said.
