Will moving Metal Health Services solve underlying vital issues?
Site of the proposed new campus  The Observer reports regularly on plans to open a state of the art mental health campus in East Sussex (eg Preferred site for campus 4/6/21). A greenfield site, close to Wrestwood Road in Bexhill seems to be the current favourite. Subject to county council scrutiny, the proposals will go out to consultation at the end of June. I suspect that the die may have been cast as soon as the money (400 million?) was put forward to accompany a government directive requiring health authorities to shut all existing dormitory style ward accommodation by March 2024 (about 32 months away). Although, like care in the community, this appears to be a highly progressive development at first, with its 54 high quality single rooms, we were told that the net level of service provision may well be less, at first, than it is now-in six years time! Mental health is an urgent health crisis nationally in itself and especially post Covid. There are many other questions that can be asked about the actual service to patients. Meanwhile, the inevitable, but important, debate about which site to choose should not be deployed as a handy distraction from the vital treatment issues that will still exist, with or without the building of a campus.