Psychiatrist: Mental health care needs 'transformation'

Six leading mental health organisations in England have warned that a government promise to give the conditions equal status within the NHS is being undermined by financial cuts.

Dr Peter Aitken from the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the NHS needed a "significant transformation" to make sure mental health conditions were treated equally to physical ones.

He told BBC Radio 5 live's Shelagh Fogarty: "Between 11% and 13% of the health budget is being spent on a range of conditions that account for quarter of the disease burden - that just seems wrong."

A spokesperson for NHS England said funding for mental health had not been cut and that it was "formally committed" to making sure there was a parity of esteem between services.