Ex Health Secretaries highlight mental health failings

Nine former Health Secretaries have voiced ‘alarm and dismay’ at the government's failure to improve mental health services.

Arguing that Prime Minister Theresa May’s ‘warm words’ are yet to be backed by action, the former secretaries of the last 20 years urged the government to fulfil its pledge to treat mental health on a par with physical health.

The group said: “Despite promised increases in funding, mental health trusts are still suffering cuts. Suicide remains the biggest killer of men under 45, people in crisis are still routinely shunted across the country in search of a hospital bed, children with eating disorders are too often turned away from services, and there is a growing mental health crisis among young women.

“We are alarmed and dismayed that so many of these points echo those made a year ago when promises of real change were made by David Cameron and George Osborne. We urge their successors to make good the promise of genuine equality.”

Current Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Times: "We are making progress against our goal to address the difficulties faced by those with mental health problems - spending by clinical commissioning groups has increased by £693 million, every area in the country has put together plans to transform children's mental health services, and our suicide prevention strategy is to be refreshed, all backed by added investment."

The letter has been signed by Conservative former Health Secretaries Lord Lansley, Stephen Dorrell and Kenneth Clarke, plus Labour's Andy Burnham, Alan Johnson, Patricia Hewitt, John Reid, Alan Milburn and Frank Dobson.

Other signatories include: Sarah Wollaston, chair of the Commons health committee, and a slew of former ministers from three parties.