MORE than 100 placard-carrying protesters turned out yesterday in defence of local health services.

They fear a review of Alaw Ward in Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, could prompt a downgrading of services for local people.

But hospital chiefs insist there are no plans to close the ward, which specialises in treating cancer patients.

Among the protesters was campaigner Debbie Hughes, whose mother Lily Adams, 70, died after suffering from leukaemia in 2008. Her grandmother and aunt also died within weeks of each other, from cancer, that year.

In a double protest, she was joined by protestors campaigning to re-open Hafan Ward mental health ward in Ysbyty Bryn Beryl Hospital, Pwllheli, which was closed earlier this year…..

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CHARITIES face an uncertain future after bosses from Lincolnshire County Council said they are “examining all contracts”….

…..One organisation already dealt a blow is mental health charity Lincoln Mind, which will lose a contract worth just over £47,000 in March.

Service users at the city centre-based charity fear it will not be able to stay open.

Regular attendees say the charity acts as a meeting place for people with mental health issues and provides a range of support, information and activities.

Service user Amanda Rutter, 51, fears its benefits can’t be replicated. She said: “Mind has been a lifeline for me.

“It’s a place where I feel safe, where I can be myself and I’m able to admit I have mental health problems because it can be difficult to do that out in open society.”…..

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The council slashed £6.5 million from this year’s budget in July, which included reducing spending on youth provision by £3.15 million.

Cuts fell on dozens of youth schemes, including £400,000 from the Connexions careers programme, leading to 95 job losses, £200,000 from the council’s teenage pregnancy project, and £180,000 from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health scheme….

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The PCT says changes to mental health services were given the green light by East Sussex County Council Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) last week.

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the local primary care trust say the bed closures will be accompanied by improvements to care in the community.

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Jeremy Dunning

Friday 01 October 2010 16:09

Government plans for closer working between health and social care could be damaged because of savage cuts to local council budgets, doctors’ leaders warned today.

In its response to the health White Paper, the British Medical Association warned that local authority funded care will be affected by budget cuts making it more difficult to commission integrated care pathways and services….

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MASSIVE cuts to services enabling elderly and vulnerable people to live independently in their own homes will be top of the agenda at a meeting in Sandwell tomorrow.

The borough council fears it will it will have to slash 30 per cent from the Government-grant based Supporting People Programme over the next three years….

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THOUSANDS of vulnerable people throughout the Vale and across Worcestershire could be left to fend for themselves if Government cuts to housing budgets become a reality.

Women fleeing domestic violence, pensioners who rely on home-help support and people with mental health problems are expected to be among the worst affected as the National Housing Federation announced that, under instruction from the Treasury, it was preparing for cutbacks of up to 40 per cent….

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Our analysis of data obtained from 129 English PCTs under the Freedom of Information Act show nearly a third of trusts providing a mental health LES last year have decided to stop funding them.

Of the 17 trusts who had mental health LESs in place in 2009/10, five said they would not continue funding beyond the last financial year and GPs in these areas have not received any funding since April.

NHS South Gloucestershire scrapped its depression LES, while NHS City and Hackney axed its mental health LES. PCTs in Bristol, Bournemouth and Somerset all cut their LESs that had provided counselling services for people with depression, mental illnesses and drug abuse.

A spokesperson for NHS City and Hackney said: ‘A review by the commissioning of primary care board, which includes GPs in its membership, came to the conclusion that there was an overlap with QOF. Depression in 2010-11 is covered under QOF.’

Since April trusts have received funding from the Department of Health to set up IAPT services as part of their baseline budgets, rather than as direct DH grants to pilot areas as previously. Mental health campaign groups have warned that the lack of ringfenced funds meant existing talking treatments and counselling services are being edged out in some areas….

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From the Rye and Battle Observer. 17th September 2010

The NHS East Sussex Downs and Weald and the NHS Hastings and Rother plans to cut the 122 in-patient beds at Eastbourne DGH and the Conquest in Hastings by 30.

The proposal was met with concerns by Eastbourne councillors who raised their concerns at a council meeting in Eastbourne Town Hall on Wednesday night (September 15).

Councillor Greg Szanto said care for psychiatric patients was already ‘inadequate’ and ‘inhumane’.

Cllr Szanto said, “The reality is the people who need inpatient care desperately need it. Sadly most are in prison and thousands and thousands are on the streets or living in accommodation which is completely inadequate.

“Suggesting we do not need these inpatient beds in nonsense.

“The strength of a community can be measured by the care it provides for its most vulnerable members. The most vulnerable group in our community, as it is in any community, is those suffering from acute mental illness……

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