ABUSED children waiting months for help. Shortage of staff. Not receiving the right kind of care and counselling. No psychiatric intensive care beds for women. A desperate shortfall in money. Just a few of the problems of mental healthcare provision in Dorset.

But the key healthcare provider, Dorset Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, has spent nearly three quarters of a million pounds on a PR firm in the past few years. It’s not about spin, but effective communication say trust bosses, as they would. But those let down by the service would probably agree with us.

A shameful waste of scarce resources.