Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt claims the cavalry is coming to the rescue to deal with Britain’s mental health crisis, proudly declaring that within four years there will be an extra 570 psychiatrists at work. But according to the professional body for psychiatrists those numbers simply don’t stack up.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists points to one hard fact: it takes 13 years to train a consultant psychiatrist.
Brexit has made it harder to retain let alone recruit foreign medical specialists, placing more pressure than ever on the ability of Britain to train its own specialists if it is to meet its own targets for dealing with shortages.
“It’s seems an almost impossible task when you consider how long it takes to train,” Hannah Perlin of the RCP told Felix Magazine.
“When the Government talk about extra psychiatrists they are talking years away, they have set a target of 570 by 2020-21. There’s now a huge amount of work to actively encourage medical students who have already chosen to be doctors or surgeons, to instead choose psychiatry.“
But even if that can be achieved, it will take time. A long 13 years made up of a five-year degree in medicine recognised by the General Medical Council; a two-year foundation course which forms a bridge between medical school and specialist or general practice training; then a six-year specialist training course in psychiatry.
The six-year programme requires three years of core training which covers a range of psychiatric sub-specialities, such as children and adolescents, older people, forensic and perinatal, and then three years of higher training focussing on one or two psychiatric sub-specialities.
And yet the government’s target date is just four years away, notes Perlin, the college’s senior communications officer. “All we can do is to try and increase the interest in psychiatry. How do we do that? One of the ways is we are now trying to talk about severe mental illness and not simply common mental disorders which are spoken about a lot in the press and there are many celebrities who talk a lot about their anxiety and depression.”
“That is fantastic because there is less stigma and more people who feel able to come forward when they feel their mental health is not quite in check. But it means we are not talking about the mental illnesses which are only diagnosed and treated by the psychiatrists.”
Not Enough Experts
As well as the long-standing stigma about mental health problems, there is also a stigma towards those who treat it, Perlin said.
“I think that it becomes very difficult for doctors to not feel there is some kind of stigma around the profession when they are choosing what to specialise in.” she said.
“It is not seen traditionally as glamorous as surgery, for example. It is traditionally viewed as a profession as a little bit old-fashioned, unlike a surgeon where they can see with their own eyes that their patients have recovered.”
“Psychiatry takes a lot more dedication and you have to get to know your patient on a different, deeper level and it requires problem thinking that does not have to play in some other specialities.”
The shortage of psychiatrists is compounded by the fact that there are particularly few NHS psychiatrists in some parts of the UK. In England alone, the number of NHS consultant psychiatrists varies dramatically, according to research by the college. For every 100,000 people in North Central and East London, there are approximately 13 consultant psychiatrists available to provide specialist mental health care on the NHS, while the East of England and Yorkshire and Humber are served by just over a third of that number – just five for every 100,000 people.
People in Wales have poor access to specialist mental health care with an average of six consultant psychiatrists for every 100,000 people, while Scotland has 10 consultant psychiatrists for the same number of people.
Northern Ireland fares the same as the English average, with eight consultant psychiatrists available for 100,000 people.
by Bob Graham
The post NHS: Mental Health Rescue Doesn’t Add Up appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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