William Wragg has asked Department of Health to improve the training of GPs so they better able to recognise and treat mental health issues.
In a session of Health Questions on Tuesday (17th November) William asked the Minister for Mental Health “What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the NHS recruits, trains and retains adequate numbers of therapists, clinicians and other staff to improve access to psychological therapies?.”
The Minister for Community and Social Care, Alistair Burt, replied “Health Education England, working with NHS England, is charged with ensuring that there are sufficient staff with the right skill mix to support the delivery of the improving access to psychological therapies programme, and that is monitored by an annual workforce census. For example, HEE’s plans for 2015-16 are to train 946 additional individuals—a 25% increase on last year.
In a supplementary question, William followed up by asking for further action from the Government. He said: “As well as providing adequate numbers of high quality specialised staff, given the prevalence of mental health issues in our society, is it not also important that general awareness is raised of mental health issues and the available treatments among all medical professionals, especially GPs? What future steps can the Government take to improve that training?”
Alistair Burt replied “There are two particular ways to do that. The first is to enhance GP training, and work is already going on to do that. The second is through continuing professional development, and the Royal College of General Practitioners and HEE are combining to ensure that a good range of materials is available for clinicians and others to improve their skills in that area. My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue.”
Local people who have followed William’s campaign will know he is continuing to push for parity of esteem between mental and physical health care. William commented after the question session “Better recognition and referrals from GPs is one important concrete steps we need to get parity of esteem for mental health, and better training is vital to achieve this. I was pleased with the Minister answers to me today, and I hope to see this promise translated into action on the ground very soon.”