This morning I had the real pleasure of
meeting with Professor Neil Greenberg, who is the Defense Professor
of Mental Health. His Chair came about, and was granted, by the
College. He told me of the fascinating work that he is carrying out
in primary, secondary and tertiary prevention, working with those
serving in the armed forces and their families. I am looking
forward to regular meetings with Neil, and taking issues of common
concern forward.
The rest of my morning was spent on the Health and Social Care
Bill. Many thanks to all of you who responded to the survey
on the Bill we sent out last week. You can see a breakdown
of the survey results here. We have not had time to analyse the
qualitative responses yet, but will do so this week and post the
results on the website next week.
We've used your responses to help us produce
a new College statement clarifying our position on the Bill. I
hope you will all take the time to read this statement in detail,
and feedback to me with your comments if you wish - as always,
you can use the comments form below.
But, in short, we believe the Bill is fundamentally flawed and
will not improve the health and care of people with mental illness.
The College is therefore not able to support the Bill as it
currently stands.
In the statement, we’ve stopped short of
calling for the Bill to be withdrawn. But we believe that it is
wrong for the government to continue without making the significant
changes that we and other medical professionals have been calling
for now for many months.
We understand that the government is due to
publish a large number of amendments to the Bill shortly. On behalf
of our members and patients, we will scrutinise these amendments
carefully in order to make an informed decision on whether or not
they address the very real concerns of psychiatrists.
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