Murdoch welcomed the priority Labour gave mental health in its election manifesto, including a commitment to recruit 8,500 mental health staff. <\/p>\n
However, in her resignation letter to Sir Jim Mackey, the NHS chief executive, she said that the proportion of NHS<\/a> funding given to mental health was falling, stating: \u201cMaintaining share of NHS spend on mental health will be critical, although it fell last year and will again this year. It likely will continue to do so over the next three years. I hope I am wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n Labour has put a pledge to cut hospital waiting lists at the centre of its agenda, and Murdoch said it was vital that the same \u201crelentless focus and priority\u201d was applied to mental health. \u201cHistory tells us that mental health can very quickly become a Cinderella service,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ring-fenced funding for mental health was set in 2016, with a \u201cmental health investment standard\u201d ensuring that the share of NHS funding spent on mental health cannot fall. However, analysis shows that mental health services\u2019 share of the NHS budget edged down fell 9 per cent in 2023-24 to 8.78 per cent in 2024-25. Wes Streeting<\/a>, the health secretary, has confirmed it will fall again this year. <\/p>\n Wes Streeting<\/p>\n JORDAN PETTITT\/PA<\/p>\n In her resignation letter, Murdoch said: \u201cIt seems that it is common knowledge that change at the top is wanted. You have told me that a new person to lead the sector is wanted by our political leadership \u2026 realistically I can\u2019t lead the sector when the political leadership don\u2019t want to engage with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Murdoch is a popular figure among healthcare leaders, and mental health charities said they were dismayed by her resignation. <\/p>\n The health department issued a pointed response to Murdoch\u2019s resignation, stating: \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been as much progress on mental health outcomes for patients in the past year as we\u2019d have liked, despite a big funding increase.\u201d<\/p>\n Murdoch\u2019s colleagues have said ministers are not paying enough \u201cstrategic attention\u201d to mental health. Baroness Watkins of Tavistock, a crossbench peer and a departing NHS England board member, told Health Service Journal this week that she was \u201cextremely\u201d worried that mental health investment was going to be watered down by government. <\/p>\n Murdoch, 64, began working as a mental health nurse at Friern Hospital in north London, which was a \u201cbig Victorian asylum\u201d. She said: \u201cIt had thousands of patients, many of whom spent their entire lives there, from the age of 14 until they had died. I would read patient case notes and weep.\u201d <\/p>\n The number of mental health beds in England has fallen from about 180,000 at the start of her career to 20,000. Murdoch said the answer to rising mental health problems, and concern about this fuelling violent offences, was \u201cnot just to lock up more people, because in the days when we did, society was no safer and the homicide and suicide rates were far higher\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2022 Nearly 400 people killed by mental health patients in six years<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Health](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/\/668973ca-e805-4ed0-bfb8-3257be8a8409.jpg\")
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