By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham City Council’s health committee has reported a local NHS body to the Government’s Health Secretary over claims it cut mental health services without warning.
Nottingham’s Centre for Trauma, Resilience and Growth, which operated out of the Mandala Centre in Gregory Boulevard, helped people living with the effects of traumatic stress.
It was run by Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, but the service is controlled and commissioned by the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB).
During a Nottingham City Council Health Scrutiny Committee meeting in May, concerns were raised over how a decision to merge the centre with wider psychological therapies had impacted the services it delivered.
The ICB continues to deny there has been a significant overall change to services across the system.
During a Full Council meeting on Monday (September 9) Cllr Georgia Power (Lab), who is the chair of the Health Scrutiny Committee, said she will now be taking steps to refer the matter to the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP.
“Based on evidence I have received from former staff at the centre, and former patients, I do believe it is a substantial variation in service on the basis that some of those services which were provided are no longer accessible in Nottingham,” she said.
“This is why the committee has agreed, for the first time since I have been a councillor, that we will make a referral to the Secretary of State.”
The Integrated Care Board is a local NHS organisation responsible for the planning of healthcare across the city and county.
On May 8 last year, the Trust said in a post on its website the trauma centre had been “incorporated” into the broader ‘Step 4 Nottinghamshire Healthcare Secondary Psychological Therapies Pathway’.
Step 4 involves specialist treatment for people using adult mental health services across Nottinghamshire, with users typically living with longer-term, more complex difficulties.
However, during the meeting in May, it was said the length of therapy available had gone from two years to 16 to 30 sessions under the merger.
If any substantial variations in NHS services are to be made, the ICB has a requirement to alert the council’s Health Scrutiny Committee.
The referral process could allows the Health Secretary to intervene and re-take any decision that has been been made by an NHS commissioning body.
Cllr Power says she met the ICB, alongside fellow councillor Maria Joannou (Lab) on Monday (September 9) to discuss the situation.
“I have to say it was probably the most unhelpful meeting I have attended for a long time,” Cllr Power added.
“The trauma centre is so important to Nottingham. It is the only specialised mental health trauma centre in the Midlands, and I and committee do not believe current trauma services are meeting need and demand.
“I think this is felt particularly in Nottingham because we know our NHS has failed too many people.
“In the case of the failing Nottinghamshire [Healthcare] Foundation Trust there is now no specialist trauma services to support [patients] to deal with the trauma they have been left with, and if they need general mental health support their only option is to turn to the Trust that failed them.”
A spokeswoman for the ICB said: “We note the referral about the Centre for Trauma, Resilience and Growth to the Secretary of State by Nottingham City Health Scrutiny Committee.
“Services for citizens suffering from trauma are available through a variety of routes in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and we don’t believe that there is a significant overall change to services available across the system.
“We will provide any additional information required by the Secretary of State and will be happy to have further meetings with the Chair of Nottingham City Health Scrutiny if requested.”
