Liberal Democrats in Haringey have criticised the Labour-run council for failing to provide an account of how £400,000 given to Haringey Council to provide care for older people with mental health problems has been spent.

This is despite repeated requests over the last six months by the Haringey Primary Care Trust (PCT) for this information. As a result, the primary care trust, whose own budget for patients is extremely stretched, is facing a £400,000 hole in its own finances.

Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Cllr Ron Aitken obtained a statement from the PCT at last month’s Social Services and Health Scrutiny Panel meeting in which they state that this funding was originally provided to them by the Department of Health and was passed to Haringey.The money was intended to meet the needs of people discharged from long-stay mental health institutions. However, the statement says:

“As most of these patients have now died, that funding is no longer provided by the DoH. The PCT has an obligation to ensure that any grant made is used for the provision of health services and has asked social services to demonstrate that the £400,000 is still contributing to the specific mental health needs of older people. The PCT is seeking to withdraw the proportion of the 400K funding given to social services that is not specifically used to address direct health needs.”

The PCT has told Haringey that funding would be withdrawn this coming year, but has now backed down from this position. However, they have still not received the detailed information they need from Haringey stating what the money has been spent on in previous years.

Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Cllr Ron Aitken comments:

“It appears that Haringey cannot say what it has used this substantial amount of money for, and that funding intended for direct patient care may not have been used for that purpose or that funding has been provided on the basis of people who are now deceased.

“This is an extremely worrying situation that should be cleared up straight away.”