The U.K.'s Care Quality Commission (CQC) is concerned patients' chances of making a full recovery are negatively impacted when they're denied contact with relatives and friends. Its report warns that people with serious mental health problems who are locked up in treatment units far from home are left isolated and are less likely to recover. The CQC says that of people with complex psychosis and other serious mental health conditions, 63% end up being sent "out of area" for care due to a lack of local beds, staff, or both. Its survey indicates that many people are being cared for sometimes more than 100 kilometers away from home, and for almost three years at a time. Lawmakers have pledged to scrap the practice of "out of area" care by 2021. Among the findings:
- Of the more than $740 million the NHS spends annually on mental health rehabilitation services, almost $500 million is spent on out-of-area placements;
- Private health firms receive 78% of the NHS patients sent out of area for care. Such firms treat each NHS-funded patient for an average of 14.5 months compared with 7.5 months on an NHS ward; and
- Patients private firms care for typically cost the NHS $225,000 per stay, compared with $112,000 in a unit run by the NHS.