Cheshire East’s Mental Health Service provision has been underfunded since the closure of the Parkside Hospital complex in 1997. Twenty Years is long enough to wait for this to be sorted out.

The CCG's in Cheshire East come in at numbers 190 and 192  (out of 210) in terms of spend per head of population on mental health.* Cheshire East spends 10%** of the total available health budget on mental health versus the 23% disease burden related to mental health  nationally. This is a serious level of underfunding.

* Reply to written question 8604 UK Parliament September 2015

** Extract from 2013/14 NHS benchmarking report

1 in 4 people in the UK suffer a mental health problem each year.

[Source: Mind.org.uk] *

There’s to be yet another review of Adult and Older People’s Mental Health Services in Cheshire East this summer/autumn.

This review includes the possibility of closing the Millbrook inpatient unit in Macclesfield. The ramifications would be severe because the Millbrook unit is the last remaining acute care inpatient facility in Cheshire East. Patients requiring such support would in future be sent to hospitals many miles from their home area.

 We must lobby together for an improvement in funding and service provision, not more cuts.

Cheshire East needs its own 50 bed hospital providing the necessary inpatient and outpatient facilities. Without it you, or a member of your family could end up having to travel to Chester or the Wirral in the most stressful of circumstances

In the UK, mental health problems are responsible for the largest burden of disease– 23%* of the total burden, compared to 16% each for cancer and heart disease. We need to tackle root causes and stop the problem being displaced onto GP services and A&E departments

* The five year forward view for mental health February 2016