The cost consequences of changing the hospital–community balance: the mental health residential care study

Abstract

Further reduction of hospital beds, however, is not the panacea for an appropriate balance of mental health care, given the unknown but potentially considerable extent of unmet demand, as well as the impact of previous in-patient bed reductions apparent in the services surveyed. Rather, service providers and purchasers should focus on developing community-based care (including increased provision of 24-hour nursed beds) by ensuring that resources released through earlier closure programmes have been redeployed for their intended use and by accessing additional pump-priming or bridging resources.