BEDS for seriously ill female psychiatric patients in Dorset are needed ‘as a matter of urgency’, according to a health minister.

The Daily Echo has previously reported that Dorset HealthCare University Foundation Trust has no intensive psychiatric care provisions for women and will not be able to resolve the problem for at least three years – and minister for care and support Norman Lamb told parliament on Tuesday that this is ‘not satisfactory’.

Dorset HealthCare’s current policy sees vulnerable patients enduring ambulance journeys lasting more than six hours as they are ferried to units hundreds of miles across the country – a practice which cost the trust £1.8million in 2013/14.

Annette Brooke, MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, raised the issue in parliament on Tuesday in a question to Mr Lamb.

“I have previously made ministers aware that there are no beds for females in Dorset who need intensive psychiatric care,” she said.

“Our local newspaper, the Daily Echo, reports that such places will not be provided in Dorset for another three years.

“Meanwhile, patients are being sent as far away as Bradford. Do ministers regard that as satisfactory? Are there enough resources coming to Dorset, or is it a local organisational issue?”

Mr Lamb replied: “No, I do not regard that as satisfactory and I am happy to talk to the local commissioners.

“We have ensured that there will be real-terms increases in mental health funding for 2015-16 and that should be regarded locally as a matter of urgency.”

Dorset HealthCare, which last year sent 60 patients out-of-county, said such transfers are “always a last resort” and an “outline business case” for new facilities has been drawn up.

Mr Lamb’s intervention follows the Echo’s They Deserve Better campaign, which revealed shocking failures by CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) in dealing with sexual abuse, that police stations were used as a ‘place of safety’ for patients on 115 occasions in 2013/14 and officers had used tasers in cells to restrain people with psychiatric problems.

Since then agencies across the county have signed the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, which is a national pledge to improve the treatment of those with mental health issues.