First national mental health priority is to hold CCGs to account, says Murdoch

First national mental health priority is to hold CCGs to account, says Murdoch The newly appointed National Mental Health Director told NHS Confederation yesterday (16 June) that her first priority is to hold commissioners to account on mental health care.

Claire Murdoch, who was appointed in April and officially began the post this week, said: “We need to have a clearer way of holding our commissioners transparently to account on what they’re doing in mental health.”

She also laid out ambitious targets to be achieved by 2020 as part of the government’s commitment to improving mental health care.

These included ensuring that at least 50% of hospitals had 24-hour psychiatric liaison services, that the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) programme reached 25% of people in need, reducing suicides by 10%, and ending the practice of placing children in out of area psychiatric services. National Health Executive