When The Gladiators appear on TV, you know they are going to do their jobs — entertaining the millions of people watching. When Wes Streeting appears on TV, you know he is going to say something completely ill-informed, prompting millions of people to facepalm in despair. In his latest round of television interviews, the Health Secretary seemed to reveal that he knows nothing about the mental part of his job. According to Wes, there is an overdiagnosis of mental health.
He seems to think that by attacking the benefits system and people who have ADHD and autism that we will conveniently forget that Labour has done nothing to resolve the mental health crisis in this country. So, here are a few facts for Streeting and his smug chums: One of my associates was admitted to a mental health hospital yesterday. She had to wait 12 days for a bed to be available.
During my time as a cancer patient the NHS, and so the taxpayer, has spent thousands of pounds on my treatment. In the 21 months while I've been having physical health treatment I've known of nine people who have killed themselves. Most would have survived if the NHS and the Government put in as many resources to support mental health patients as it does people with cancer.
A man who said he was suicidal and wanted to jump in front of a train was referred to a DIY project instead of a psychiatrist. He is now dead. At his inquest an NHS manager explained how the mental health service he runs was set up to cope with 5,000 patients. He said the service is doing its best to help the 10,000 patients it now has.
A woman who was sent to a mental health hospital 300 miles away from her home for treatment thought she would be safe and would get help. She is now dead.
Can you imagine the outcry if a physical health patient was sent 300 miles away from their friends and family for treatment and never returned home?
Year one of Labour's 10-year plan to fix the NHS is shaping to be Wes Streeting trying to show how little he knows about all aspects of healthcare while thinking he is some kind of guru and attacking staff who have decades of experience. Year two must involve Wes Streeting realising that having had cancer does not qualify someone to be Health Secretary. He should resign and take his seat on the backbenches of Parliament where his ill-informed views are less likely to damage the health of the nation.
There is no overdiagnosis in mental health. But there are thousands of patients who cannot get the help they so desperately need.
Labour talks about reducing waiting lists for physical health patients. It always fails to mention that there are mentally ill patients who slip through the gaps because they are judged to be too ill for one service and not ill enough for another. Instead of talking about an overdiagnosis in mental health, Wes Streeting should be talking about how Labour is going to ensure the NHS is equipped to help people before they reach crisis point.
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