People with mental health problems could die because of controversial NHS funding changes which breach ministerial pledges to treat patients with psychological or physical conditions equally, patient charities are warning.
Six leading mental health organisations say NHS England’s decision to cut the amount of money the sector will receive in “tariffs” or fees for its services from April will badly hit an area of NHS care that is already “straining at the seams”.
They are angry that NHS bosses and Monitor, the NHS’s economic regulator, are imposing a 1.8% cut in the amount of money for non-acute care services, which include mental health. That is higher than the 1.5% reduction in the budget for acute hospital-based medical services.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/12/mental-health-funding-changes-lives-risk
It shows that talk of ‘parity of esteem’ was pure BS . If it had been true there would be a substantial rise in funding , not cuts.