Health bosses concerned over mental health delays

Health bosses say they are concerned by an increasing number of people on waiting lists for mental health services.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) said it faced ongoing challenges with waiting lists "despite concerted efforts".

Chief operating officer, Holly Sutherland, said the trust made "some really good progress" with adult mental health services, but waits for adult ADHD and autism services remained "challenging with increasing referrals".

Children's mental health waiting lists were also increasing with 1,723 waiting for an assessment in January and 2,403 waiting for treatment.

A report, presented to the trust's board of directors on Wednesday, said waiting lists "continue to pose some challenges" for mental and physical health services.

Overall the adult mental health waiting list - excluding ADHD and autism waiting lists - had gone down slightly. But as of December, there were 7,017 adults on the ADHD waiting list, a 26% increase since the start of 2024.

Since the end of December 2,276 adults were on the autism waiting waiting list, a 29% increase.

The trust had also received a "sustained increase" in referrals for ADHD services for children in recent months, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It said the learning disability services waiting list for assessment was also "higher than it has been in previous years".

The trust's chief executive officer, Steve Grange, said there had been a "meteoric rise" in referrals for ADHD services nationally.

Professor Ed Bullmore, a non-executive director on the board, also recognised a "stratospheric increase in referrals for ADHD and autism".

Long waiting times were being faced by children for physical health services, including paediatric community nursing. The longest wait for community paediatrics was 76 weeks.

Prof. Bullmore said waiting more than a year was "a long time for a child".

Eileen Milner, the trust chair, also raised concerns about people with learning disabilities facing longer waiting lists to access support and asked what was being done to address the situation.

Ms Sutherland said work was being led by the Integrated Care Board to streamline children's neurodevelopmental services.

This could allow a child and their family to attend one appointment and see various different specialists rather then the current system of attending multiple appointments for different issues.

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