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The draft Mental Health bill is “unworkable” in Wales because services are not sufficiently equipped to deliver the legislation, Welsh organisations have warned, writes Maria Ahmed.

Giving evidence to the joint committee on the bill this week, Hafal, a service user-led group, said Welsh services “lacked the infrastructure” to support the bill.

Vicky Yates, a carer representing Hafal, told the committee implementation of the national service framework for mental health in Wales remained “patchy” and said the bill would not work without “radical” change.

The group were particularly concerned that there was no clear timetable for implementing the NSF, leaving Wales “falling behind” England.

Hafal also raised concerns over workforce problems including an “acute shortage” of psychiatrists in Wales.

The bill’s requirement of an increase in tribunals would lead to a diversion of “already scant resources” away from health services to the management of the legal process, the group warned.

“This in turn would mean more people deteriorating to the point where compulsion was necessary,” Hafal representatives said.