By Charlotte Hall

As mental health workers prepare to go on strike over 'dangerous' conditions for patients, Andy Burnham has pleaded with them 'not to follow through with industrial action'. The Greater Manchester mayor offered to work with mental health teams to 'discuss issues'. 

Union members in Manchester's Early Intervention in Psychosis teams are reportedly set to strike on 16 October, due to staffing levels at 'lower than acceptable standards', leaving patients at risk. 

The team is part of the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust, which has struggled to make improvements since shocking failures were uncovered at a number of hospitals in 2022.

Low staffing levels and missed opportunities have been slammed. The trust has been slammed as 'inadequate' by government health watchdog the Care Quality Commission two years in a row. 

Speaking in the Mayoral hot seat on Radio Manchester, he said it was the 'first' he'd heard of the strike suggestions. He responded: "This is not being done out of self interest. They are clearly doing this to raise awareness of the risk to patients. 

"They're trying to get the attention of people like me and those who run the health service as to the severity of the situation. I will meet the team and discuss issues with them. 

"But I would ask them not to follow through with the industrial action, because it won't necessarily make things better." 

Mr Burnham also warned against 'demonising' people working in public services who want to go on strike. 

"It's a really bad place that some want to take us to, to demonise people working in our mental health services or in the hospital, or even driving trains," he said. "These are frontline people providing really important services to us. They're not our enemies." 

Addressing mental health workers, he added that his 'door is open' and that he would 'respond immediately' in his role as co-chair of Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership – a committee that brings together the region's health and local authority bosses.  

But the issue goes beyond Greater Manchester. Mental health services across the country are at breaking point while investment into the service fails to keep pace with the spiralling number of people in need of support since the pandemic. 

Greater Manchester's NHS was slammed last month for sending people as far afield as Taunton for out-of-area treatment because hospitals in the region ran out of beds and staff to care for patients. The desperate measures only pile on more pressure long-term, having been quoted as a reason for the region's NHS being in hundreds of millions of pounds in deficit.

The government has said it wants to 'fix the broken system' with a recruitment drive for 8,500 more mental health workers and by reforming the Mental Health Act.

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