We are running a consultation about inpatient (hospital bed) mental health services in south east Staffordshire. It is about where we provide the inpatient services that were previously provided at the George Bryan Centre. The centre closed temporarily in 2019.

We are recommending a proposal to keep 18 inpatient mental health beds at St George’s Hospital in Stafford.

If the proposal goes ahead, there will not be any mental health beds at the former George Bryan Centre site.

This would mean that some family, friends and carers would have a longer journey to visit patients who were admitted to St George’s Hospital in Stafford.

We know that visits and support from family, friends and carers are very important and helpful to patients in hospital.

We have heard from some patients and family members that they are worried about being able to visit and stay in touch if we keep the mental health beds at St George’s Hospital. For some people, travelling could take longer, be more difficult to manage, and cost more.

We looked at a group of adult patients from Stafford, Cannock Chase, east Staffordshire, Lichfield, south Staffordshire and Tamworth. These patients were admitted to wards at St George’s Hospital in Stafford, Harplands Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent and the Redwoods Centre in Shrewsbury.

We didn’t look at patients who went into some specialist wards like those for eating disorders. This is because patients who need care for those particular conditions would not have been admitted to the George Bryan Centre, as it was not suitable for their needs.

We looked at the two years after the George Bryan Centre’s temporary closure (March 2019 – March 2021).

• How long it took to travel from the patient’s home address to the George Bryan Centre
• How long it took to travel from the patient’s home address to the nearest mental health hospital, not counting the George Bryan Centre.

• We used tools like TRACC software and OS Highways integrated road networks alongside TrafficMaster [2] road speeds data
• We calculated public transport journeys using the most recent schedules from the National Public Transport Data Repository
• We included time for walking to, from, and in between public transport stops
• We looked at what it was like to travel at different times of day, on weekdays and at weekends.

If there are no mental health beds at the George Bryan Centre site:

Travelling by car

• Those living in Tamworth and Lichfield will be most affected in terms of travelling if there are no mental health beds at the George Bryan Centre site
• Some visitors from the Stafford area may have a shorter journey if the beds are kept at St George’s Hospital

Travelling by public transport

• Visitors from Stafford, Cannock Chase and south Staffordshire whose family member/friend would have been admitted to the George Bryan Centre benefit most if we keep the beds at St George’s Hospital
• Visitors from Tamworth and Lichfield may spend an extra 30–45 minutes on buses or trains if there are no mental health beds at the George Bryan Centre site
• Given current public transport routes and schedules, only people living in a small geographical area would have better public transport access for visiting if beds were available at the George Bryan Centre site. These are people living in and around Lichfield and Tamworth.

Through carrying out this activity and travel analysis, we also found out that, when the George Bryan Centre was open:

• only one in four of the patients from the six areas around the centre were being admitted there when they needed a mental health hospital stay
• three in four of the patients were already being admitted to other hospitals further away – most to St George’s Hospital in Stafford.

Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) is the organisation that operates St George’s Hospital and operated the George Bryan Centre.

MPFT is developing a standard operating procedure (SOP) to help those affected by the temporary closure of the George Bryan Centre. The purpose is to help this group of family, friends and carers with the travel costs of visiting patients at St George’s Hospital. (The SOP is available to read on our consultation website.)

If the proposal to keep the beds at St George’s Hospital as the long-term solution goes ahead, the SOP would stay in place for a period of time.

Apart from help with costs, MPFT has promised to help in other ways.

• Making visiting times at St George’s Hospital more flexible, to make visiting easier for visitors who use public transport
• Supporting ‘virtual visiting’ – staying in touch through video calls. This includes making sure that patients and visitors have access to devices like tablets. MPFT’s website has a page with support and guidance about digital skills: mpft.nhs.uk/about-us/digital/training

As part of the consultation, we are asking for people’s ideas and suggestions about how we can support visitors to St George’s Hospital. MPFT will look at all the ideas and suggestions and use them to help finalise the travel SOP.