Position on the Gordon Hospital consultation

North West London Integrated Care Board (NWL ICB) and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) have opened a public consultation on the future of Gordon Hospital and provision of acute mental health services in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea.

This consultation follows CNWL’s temporary closure of all 51 specialist in-patient beds in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns. They are asking residents and other interested persons for their views on future service provision for adults aged 18 to 65 with mental health needs. The public consultation was launched on 24 October 2023 and concludes at the end of January 2024. NHS Senior managers have assured us that the feedback from local people will inform decisions on how services will operate in future.

Mental health can affect anyone at any time. Untreated mental health conditions can result in unnecessary disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, poor quality of life and premature death including suicide.  Having the right level of services close to where people live helps ensure they receive the care they need in the right place at the right time. Since CNWL closed the Gordon Hospital’s 51 beds, our mental health service data has shown that the percentage of cases recommended for detention under the Mental Health Act grew from 65% (1,131 cases) in 2021/22 to 69% (1,223) in 2022/23.

Even though CNWL opened its Mental Health Crisis Assessment Service (MHCAS) drop-in centre for people with low level mental health needs at St Charles, this has not been enough to replace the Gordon’s beds.

This is not a consultation that is being organised or run by the council but we think that all our residents should have the opportunity to contribute and ensure their views are heard. We urge everyone with an interest in mental health services in our city to engage with the consultation.

The consultation includes three options relating to the future of the Gordon Hospital. As a local authority, the council has responsibilities to deliver care to people with eligible needs, which often relate to mental health. Organisations like NWL ICB and CNWL are valued and long-standing partners because they work with the council to support residents’ health and wellbeing and provide services that residents need. The council appreciates the time NWL ICB and CNWL staff have taken to develop the consultation and is grateful for the opportunity to ensure the council and its residents’ views inform their decision making.

The council has both informally and formally expressed concerns about the potential options being put forward for consultation for many months now. Although it is grateful for some changes that have been made, it remains concerned about the proposal’s impacts on residents who need to access services close to where they live without having to travel to a different borough. The council maintains that residents should have acute and community services available locally, without any reductions in either. The council does not feel these are sufficiently reflected in the consultation’s three options. The maintenance of acute and community services for mental health is critical and needs to be prioritised given escalating demand.  

The council has reviewed the consultation’s three options with residents’ health and wellbeing needs in mind, and as noted previously, none of the options reflect what the council has heard from residents, partners or from the two independent reviews on the impact of the Gordon Hospital’s temporary closure. The conclusion of both these reviews makes it abundantly clear that Westminster residents need the Gordon Hospital reopened whilst maintaining vital community services.

Reluctantly, the closest proposal to the council’s view is Option 1. Whilst this would see the Gordon Hospital’s 51 beds re-open, NWL ICB and CNWL have indicated that taking this option forward may lead to some community and crisis services developed since March 2020 being reduced or stopped. The council opposes this and believes CNWL should not reduce or stop any services. Option 1 would re-open the Gordon Hospital’s 51 beds that CNWL temporarily closed in 2020 due to COVID-19. Re-introducing these resources to south Westminster will allow more residents to access mental health provision at the right time and at the right place and reduce the risk of them having to travel long distances to access the services they need.

In response to CNWL’s consultation, the council and The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, have set up a Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) to analyse with impartiality the impact of the NHS’s consultation on residents and to hear your views and make recommendations about the best way forward for residents.

The JHOSC will be meeting over the next 3 months and residents are encouraged to attend these meetings and follow this discussion when considering their responses to the consultation. 

Furthermore, Healthwatch recently released an independent report after several months of investigating the impact of the temporary closure of Gordon Hospital on residents with mental health needs across RBKC and WCC. We encourage everyone to read this report. The link is provided below.

We encourage all residents to have their say on this consultation. Mental health provision may be something any one of us, a family member or friend may need, so even if you are not a user it’s vital the  NHS hears your views on its proposed change of services in your area.

The council will keep you informed of any JHOSC developments.

• View the consultation
• Read Healthwatch’s report
• View our mental health support page