So now, some four years later since the first investment into IAPT how is the service fairing?
Well let's take a look in Surrey, first a little history as I know it (clarification on these points welcomed), but this is how I understand it. Prior to IAPT the CBT was provided by the local mental health Trust, in this case it was Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust. They were commissioned by NHS Surrey and other PCT's to provide mental health services to residents of the area the Trust covered. Then, the tenders went out for IAPT and if I am understanding correctly the tender to provide primary level IAPT services for Surrey was awarded by NHS Surrey to an organisation called KCA, and the KCA New Thoughts IAPT service was born, in 2010 or early 2011 I think. Their website says 'KCA is a charity and a company limited by guarantee, established in 1975. The organisation has many years experience delivering drug, alcohol and mental health services and an established network of service centres in London and the South East.'
Now this is where the problems begin, because IAPT was supposed to target getting people back into work, or ensuring they stay working by improving access to CBT, certainly within a target of NHS national waiting times (18 weeks). For some reason, KCA did not simply get funding to implement a brand new IAPT service, instead they appear to have taken the waiting lists from the existing Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust. I personally think that Surrey and Borders should have retained their waiting list and worked through it, allowing KCA to start with a new service, but, that is not what happened, and KCA must have agreed to take on the service, and will be paid for it and therefore have no reason to moan about the fact they have a 2000 long waiting list for CBT they inherited, but they did, and they are and they shouldn't.
This is a perfect example of why Mr Cameron and Mr Lansley should not be allowed to get away with their plans to push for greater involvement from the private sector and charities, because as in this case I fear we may see cheaper tenders won, but at the cost of the patients and blame being passed from service to service.
Back to the problems of today.
For many weeks now I have been working with one of our members to help her gain access to CBT through her local service. Sadly for her she lives in Surrey and KCA provide that service now. Her GP referred her for CBT in January 2011, she eventually received a phone call from the IAPT service in August which lasted all of 10 minutes, I believe the conversation went like this "well yes Miss X, you have OCD, we can treat you and we will be in touch at some point". She never heard from them again. She then received the attached letter (I do have permission to share this).
KCA.jpg 936.17K
31 downloadsAs you can see, despite having waited over a year for CBT, thankfully she is doing ok'ish and not desperate, she was able to see the funny side of it, 'yes we might offer you CBT at some point, we are not sure when, but it might be soon'....
KCA should never have sent such a letter, it is like 'look at us, our problems are so bad, blah, blah', well I can assure KCA that their problems are nothing compared to the lady with OCD, and no doubt everyone else on that waiting list. I don't care one bit about KCA problems, they should never have accepted the contract if they cant provide the staff or the service.
I have spent a fair while on the phone to KCA in February, and they have told me porkies that that they have tried to call and email the lady, they hadn't, they told me the number was wrong it was not connecting, but the fact is the number was fine, I had given the lady at KCA her email address on the 7th February too, so when KCA told me this week that they could not reach the lady, I asked 'why did you not email her then if the phone was not working as I gave you the email address on the 7th February Elaine', 'oh, eeer, well I thought we did' Elaine told me, I reply, 'So Elaine, when we spoke on the 6th and 7th Feb, you refused to discuss with me, you wanted to talk to the client, what did you want to talk to the client about was it to offer her CBT?', 'When can she expect CBT to begin Elaine, this month, April, May, June?'. I was being pretty firm and hard at this point because she had lied to me about trying to contact our member.
To this day they still will not tell our member or myself when they can expect to be in a position to offer CBT. I don't expect an exact date, but a rough 2 month period estimate would be nice.
So, my question to our members is this. Have you been offered CBT through KCA, if so, did you have to wait long? Or are you still on the waiting list. I would like to hear some good positive stories that KCA are doing a good job. But if you are in the same boat as our other member, let me know because it is time to go above KCA to the commissioners.
