"Stockport short-changed on mental health care", says MP

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 9th Nov 2004

In Parliament Tomorrow, local MP Andrew Stunell will team up with Stockport's Penine Care Trust to press the Government to increase funding for Stockport's badly needed mental health services.

Andrew Stunell said:

"Mental health services in Stockport have been chronically under-funded for years. The North West gets less funding than every region in the UK and the Penine Trust, which has recently taken over locally, is at the bottom of the heap.

"This is inequality without reason and it has to end. The Trust gets 20% less than the national average and is being forced to resort to drastic measures like ward closures to get the problem under control."

Penine Trust receives on average £10,500 per 100,000 people, whilst the national average is £13,000. The resulting programme of cut-backs includes redundancies, reduced services and vacancy freezing.

Andrew Stunell added:

"This state of affairs will damage the fragile progress of the mentally ill in Stockport. The North West is being neglected, yet again and it is time for the Government to sit up and take notice. ENDS