Mental health services: CQC warns of “perfect storm”

A shortage of skilled staff, coupled with rising demand, has created a “perfect storm” for patients using mental health and learning disability services, England’s healthcare regulator has warned.

In its annual State of Care report for 2018-19, the Care Quality Commission said that although quality ratings across health and social care—including community mental health services—had been maintained overall, this masked “a real deterioration” in some specialist inpatient services over the past 12 months.1

As at 30 September 2019 the CQC reported that:

• 10% of inpatient services for people with learning disabilities or autism were rated inadequate, up from 1% in 2018

• 7% of …