It has come to light that those who have a job in private nursing or in homecare are now being forced to work in facilities that are in need of either investment or repair. All of this is putting patients at risk and this is not good for anyone.

Mental health services do require a huge amount of capital investment- but that being said, the majority of trusts would not be able to access the capital they need even if investments were made. Staff are being forced to care for patients who are in buildings that have outlived their original purpose. Two thirds of mental health trusts are not going to get the funding they need this year. A lot of the funding is for urgent repairs, or so they can upgrade their facilities. It has been warned that this sheer lack of investment is now putting patients at risk and that a lot of people are being cared for in wards that are just not suitable. The report has also revealed that around 27% of trusts thought that the allocated funding would not even meet half of what they need.

In addition to this, 2 out of 3 mental health trusts have estimated that they are going to need £50m-£150m of capital over the next 10 years. One trust have stated that they require half a billion as this is the only way that they are going to be able to address maintenance. A lot of trusts out there desperately want to try and give their patients the service that they need but they are not going to be able to do this if they are not able to get the repairs to their facility done on time. Only time will tell what the future holds but right now, the funding just isn’t covering what the trusts need.