Every 67 seconds, someone calls 999 for a mental health emergency – a frightening statistic that brings home the scale of the crisis.
For too long, mental health has been ignored, treated as less important than physical health.
But attitudes have changed and we all realise its importance. All, it seems, except the Government.
The last decade or so of Tory rule has seen mental health provision slashed to the bone.
Services have gone, units closed, beds disappeared. Those in charge have been careless.
It’s bad enough during normal times. But in a pandemic it’s downright dangerous.
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Now the seeds they have sown are bearing fruit. Last year every hospital had 1,900 people in a mental health crisis brought to A&E by ambulance. That’s a 140% jump since 2010.
The system couldn’t cope anyway. Now it’s breaking.
Ambulances are backing up outside hospitals, waiting lists are at all-time highs, paramedics and police are struggling to cope.
The solutions are clear: proper funding for health services and proper provision for mental health, a revolution in social care, better pay and conditions for our health service staff.
It’s a lot, but this Government has a knack of finding money when it needs to.
This isn’t for a trip to the Cayman Islands though.
This is big money to save our NHS, end the mental health crisis and enable our health service do what it does best: caring for people and saving lives.
Meghan court out
The beauty of the justice system is that it is blind.
Rich or poor, those before the courts are judged on the facts of their case and nothing more.
Even Meghan Markle is finding this out now.
She “forgot” certain vital information during a hearing.
What’s frightening for her is that others might now remember things that were forgotten.
No-one wishes her ill. She has had a tough time of it in the past couple of years.
But the courts are based on a system that applies to everyone.
Even a Duchess.
