Progress made on mental health services formerly provided by the George Bryan Centre

Health and care leaders today (Thursday 18 Aug) determined to move to the next stage in the process for in-patient mental health services previously provided at the George Bryan Centre in Tamworth.

It means proposals will now be considered by NHS England’s assurance process in September.

The George Bryan Centre provided 31 beds for adults living in south and east Staffordshire experiencing severe mental illness or dementia.

A wing of the centre containing 19 beds was destroyed by a fire in February 2019, and since then alternative in-patient provision has been provided at St George’s Hospital in Stafford while there has been a significantly enhanced service provided to people living in their own homes.

Today, the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) considered a proposal set out in a business case by the Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) which provides the services. The proposal is for retaining inpatient beds at St George’s and further enhancing community provision.

Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, Chief Medical Officer for the ICB said: “This isn’t a final decision we’ve made today but we have considered the matter and decided that it should now move to the NHS England assurance process.

“The case put to us was that the proposal would be better for patients as it’s now recognised treating patients with mental health needs in the community is preferable to inpatient hospital stays in all but the most serious cases. Enhanced services are now being provided in the community with more improvements planned.

“St George’s is also a much larger facility than the George Bryan Centre was, with more scope to care for patients with a broader range of needs and with staff that have a greater range of specialisms.

“Importantly we were shown it will be better for the recruitment and retention of specialist mental health staff who are in short supply nationally and who need to be deployed in the most effective way.

“We have been given assurance that issues relating to travel are being examined so that people will have support to travel to Stafford if necessary.”

Following the NHS England assurance process, the decision making will revert to the ICB to decide whether any further engagement is required with the public and stakeholders.

An independent report into the MPFT business case by the West Midlands Clinical Senate will be published shortly.