Dr Danny Chambers

Every Member who has spoken, from whichever side of the House, has spoken eloquently about their constituents’ difficulties accessing primary care. As the Lib Dem mental health spokesperson, I want to focus on some potential initiatives that will help solve those problems. There is a really good initiative in Winchester that recognises the many socioeconomic problems that contribute to poor mental health. The poorest 20% of people are twice as likely as people on an average salary to experience mental health issues. So in that fantastic initiative, local NHS mental health services are working with Winchester Citizens Advice to help people with mental health issues deal with troubles like debt, monetary issues and housing issues. It is saving a huge amount of NHS resources. Analysis showed that for every £1 spent on the initiative avoided about £40.06 in costs, and people were less likely to have to engage with mental health services again. I would be really keen for the mental health team, if they are willing to do so, to meet me and the team in Winchester that has come up with this initiative, because it really could be rolled out over the rest of the country. When we discuss community mental health, we often talk about community mental health hubs, for which the Liberal Democrats have been calling for a long time, so that we can proactively engage with people at risk of mental health issues. We know what those demographics are. We target physical health screenings at the demographics that are likely to suffer from those diseases, and it is the same with mental health. We know that military veterans and their families, women one year after giving birth, the LGBT+ community and other demographics are at a higher risk of experiencing mental health issues, and we could be engaging with these people much more proactively through community mental health hubs to ensure that they do not end up needing to access primary healthcare. Finally, although this relates to secondary care, we must acknowledge the long waiting lists for those who go to their GP and are referred for mental health treatment, because they are huge and people can wait for months or for over a year. In that time, people can end up going to A&E, which takes a lot of time and resources, and costs the taxpayer a lot of money. GPs in Winchester tell me that they spend a huge amount of their time dealing with people already on waiting lists for referral who have come back again because they need help in the meantime, so that would really help free up primary care.