People living in outskirts of Leeds face 'complications' accessing mental health services say councillors

NHS support for people with mental health issues is under sustained pressure, with a chronic shortage of staff contributing to the delays many patients face in getting help.

But some living on the outskirts of towns and cities can face an extra layer of difficulty, particularly if their registered GP is in the next local authority area from where they live, a health scrutiny meeting on Tuesday heard.

One councillor, who raised the case of a local resident facing the problem whilst needing crisis support, claimed patients were being “bounced around the system”.

Coun Paul Alderson represents the Guiseley and Rawdon ward, which is part of Leeds, but neighbours the local authority area of Bradford.

He told the meeting: “This person needed crisis support and they’d previously been in contact with myself, but they’d moved just over the border into the Bradford authority.

“We put everything in place for them and referred them, but we got an email back to say because they were still registered with a Leeds GP (there were issues with them accessing support).

“It goes back to what we spoke about previously with people being bounced around the system.”

Alison Kenny, from the Leeds and York NHS Partnership Trust, which provides local mental health services, replied: “When you live in the border areas, life can be complicated because the NHS is based on GP population and local authorities are based on residential population.

“We depend on having good relationships across the borders with local authorities and NHS colleagues in order to try to resolve these situations.

“If I’m honest, I can’t answer with any authority right now around any specific pieces of working looking at cross-border issues. I do know we sort a few of them out on an individual basis.”

Coun Alderson called for more work to be done to reduce the risk of people falling through cracks in the system.

He said: “We don’t want to make it more complicated for people whose lives are already significantly complicated. If there’s any scope for looking at this – in this instance it was someone who needed support quickly, so time can be critical in these situations.”