Angry GP slams CAMHS for failing children with mental health problems in Milton Keynes

A city GP has spoken out about how she feels MK’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is failing children and young people.

Dr Tush Wick says the service is “dysfunctional”, badly organised and too quick to discharge their young patients without spending the time to assess them properly.

“Whilst I do not feel proud to complain about the NHS Services of which I am providing patient care, I do feel such glaring inefficiencies need to be highlighted in order to provide comprehensive mental health care to children more urgently,” she said.

Dt Wick has highlighted the case of one schoolgirl patient whom she referred to CAMHS as an urgent case two years ago. She has full consent of the patient’s family and the girl herself to tell her story.

"The child disclosed in 2021, when she was 15, that she had been sexually abused for years. Police were informed and I referred her to CAMHS to receive the specialist help she so badly needed,” she said.

But today, two years on, the child has still not been able to access the correct therapy and treatment, said Dr Wick.

The first contact from CAMHS, which is run by the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) came in a phone call made to the child – during school hours.

"Of course she was not going to talk about it at school,” said Dr Wick. “So this resulted in CAMHS refusing to help her, saying she was discharged because she did not engage."

After the GP complained, CAMHS visited the girl at home. They decided she was “not severe” enough to need their help.

She was referred instead to SASH Bucks, a charity to support young people who have experienced domestic abuse or sexual harm.

"This just wasn’t enough. CAMHS seem to outsource cases to other bodies, often charities,” claimed Dr Wick.

Using her knowledge as a GP, she managed to complain and navigate the system more then most people, but still felt she was banging her head against a brick wall.

This week, finally, the child was given a diagnosis of “complex post traumatic stress” and CAMHS has agreed to see her.

The battle has taken two years, during which time the girl has suffered problems emotionally and academically, going from a star student to failing her A Levels, said Dr Wick.

"I know this child isn't the only patient neglected,” she said. "CAMHS is a travesty of tax payers funding and I feel I have a duty towards social justice to blow the whistle.”

A CNWL spokesperson said: “Our wait times are significantly lower than they were 12 months ago and the service has done a vast amount of work to reduce waiting times and continues to work hard to reduce lengthy waits. The service is managing an unprecedented and consistent increase in referrals for which the needs of young people are changing all the time and increasing.

As well as our focus within the service we are working closely with our partners across MK to improve pathways longer term.

“We’re sorry for this person’s situation and we will work with them for a solution.”