HEALTH chiefs in Bury insist they are spending more on mental health services - despite an MP's claims to the contrary.

Data obtained by the Labour Party indicates that Bury’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and others across Greater Manchester are cutting the amount they spend on mental health, despite Government promises to increase funding.

But this has been refuted by Bury CCG who say an extra £1.5M is being splashed out during the current financial year.

Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner, patron of the Labour Mental Health campaign, has written to every CCG group in the conurbation, demanding improvements in mental health services.

Their data suggests that Bury CCG is cutting its mental health spending from 9.83 per cent last year to 8.81 per cent this year.

Ms Rayner said: “These percentage figures may seem small in some cases, but they represent hundreds of thousands of pounds which are being cut from multi-million pound budgets. 
“That means fewer therapists working with people who have mental health problems, fewer acute beds and fewer services. It is very worrying.”

She added: “While the Government says spending on mental health services should be increased it is actually being badly cut in Greater Manchester.”

But Dr Jeff Schryer, Mental Health lead for NHS Bury CCG said: “Investment into mental health services in Bury has increased this year, with an additional £1.5 million investment compared to 2014/15. This represents 6.8% additional investment in mental health services and was secured from our (6.4%) increase in financial allocation from April 2015.”

“In committing these funds, the CCG has demonstrated that mental health services will be given parity of esteem with other health services in Bury.

"Additional investments this year to date include: investment into a service to support patients presenting at accident and emergency (A&E) in mental health crisis; more money for the Healthy Minds service, providing treatment and support for people struggling to cope with low mood, stress, anxiety, depression; working more closely with the voluntary sector to support children diagnosed with autism and ADHD; and more of a focus on early intervention, to identify and treat problems at the earliest possible stage.”