Victory on King's mental health plans

Thursday, 19 November 2009

By Jenny Clover

JUST under a year ago, 67-year-old retired flower wholesaler Tom White booked an appointment to see his Member of Parliament.

His reputation as a well-respected local campaigner was secure but he was feeling low.

His lengthy battle to save the Maudsley Hospital’s emergency clinic for mental health patients from closure had been lost.

Now he was trying to secure the next best thing – a suitable replacement within the A&E at King’s College Hospital across the road.

This week the pensioner is celebrating. King’s released plans for a mental health suite that are – in the words of one mental health charity worker – “better than we would ever have expected”.

The battle over the Maudsley’s emergency clinic started five years ago.

In the summer of 2004, health chiefs announced a review that led to the closure of the 24-hour clinic for mental health patients at the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill.

People in South London swung into action: 2,000 signed a petition, and pensioners’ groups joined forces with mental health charities, Maudsley patients and even doctors to fight the plans.

It was all backed by the South London Press, and in September 2007 former reporters Anna Giokas and Ben Clover won a gong from the Mental Health Media Awards in 2007 for their campaigning on the issue.

Four heavyweight MPs who serve Lambeth and Southwark also waded into the battle, bringing the issue up in Parliament and joining protests.

It was a rare and inspiring example of a whole community working together to fight against NHS cost-cutting – but it failed.

The clinic closed in May 2007 and staff were told to direct any patients over the road to the A&E at King’s College Hospital.

In July 2007, former emergency clinic user Sarah Tonin told the South London Press about the grim reality of using the new service.

She said: “These two big security men carried me. They had rubber gloves on and that scared me because I thought they were going to strip-search me.

“They carried me into a cubicle. There were lots of old people coming in on drips and things, and I could hear people talking about me.

"It wasn’t enough, it just wasn’t. I’m so worried now about other people going there and feeling the way I felt.

"I know it would not have been like that at the clinic.”

In February that year Rosie Winterton, a junior health minister, told Simon Hughes, MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, and campaigners who made the journey to Parliament that a “safe and segregated area for mental health service users” should be created within the A&E at King’s.

She also announced £6million in funding for the space.

By January 2009, bosses at King’s finally released their plans for the new A&E.

Although some suggested changes were supported by users – including nurses to “meet and greet” everyone who came into the department, to get rid of the old queueing system– the plans were greeted with dismay.

Instead of a separate area, there were simply a few cubicles dotted around the department where patients could wait.

It was at this point that Mr White visited Ms Jowell, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood.

A renewed campaign began with Mr Hughes, Ms Jowell, Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey and Harriet Harman, MP for Camberwell and Peckham, lining up to lobby King’s.

Mental health users responded to King’s consultation, saying the provision for them within the A&E was “absolutely inadequate”.

King’s listened and the architects were sent back to the drawing board.

On Monday, the hospital trust released new plans.

The battle, it appears, has been won.

The plans show a separate area for users in mental crisis to wait, away from the noise and bustle of the rest of the A&E, two private consulting rooms and a separate toilet.

Ms Priest said: “We are really, really happy with the plan.

“When the councils and MPs came on board it gave us more strength, then it wasn’t just these mad people trying to take on this wealthy organisation, it showed us that other people understood too.

“And the support of the South London Press made a huge difference.”

The sentiment was echoed by Ms Jowell, who worked as a psychiatric social worker at the Maudsley in the 1970s.

She told the South London Press: “For an MP to be involved in such a campaign is a privilege and, in a way, it is what MPs are for.

"Thank you to the South London Press for supporting the campaign so vigorously and so effectively.”

Fellow MPs echoed her tributes.

Ms Hoey said: “This shows if there’s enough support from the community and politicians and campaigners we can sometimes make big organisations like hospitals change their minds.

“It shows the importance of having the support of an effective, campaigning newspaper like the South London Press.”

For Mr White, it was proof that groups fighting together could make a difference.

He said: “Many people and groups – in particular the South London Press, Stan Hardy, Tessa Jowell and Simon Hughes – have been involved in this campaign.

“South London Press editor Hannah Walker spurred me on, because she felt exactly the same way as I did about it.

"Knowing we had someone as high up in the media as Hannah saying it was wrong, really helped me.

“I never thought we wouldn’t win, but this has exceeded our expectations.”

Email: jenny.clover@slp.co.uk

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1 comments on this news item

Posted by : Simon, SE5 | Thursday 19/Nov/2009 | Report this comment

Good news I hope as long as its implemented - it will improve the Camberwell area greatly as people who need help will not be wondering around

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