Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many female inpatient mental health beds there were on (a) Saturday 7 November 2015 and (b) Sunday 8 November 2015.

Alistair Burt

We do not hold this information centrally. However we know that there were beds available across the country the weekend in question. Where there are shortages of beds, we would expect trusts to respond appropriately to any increase in demand. Providers and commissioners work in collaboration to ensure that they secure the most appropriate beds or places as close to home as possible.

The Government has made it clear that beds must always be available for those who need them. We have set out in our Mandate to NHS England that plans must be put in place to ensure no one in mental health crisis will be turned away.