Nearly 10% of mental health inpatients in Scotland – over 1,300 patients – were readmitted within 28 days of discharge in 2011.

The readmission rate was highest in Dumfries and Galloway at 14%.

Liberal Democrat MSPs used the figures to call for greater investment in community-based mental health services.

“When it comes to mental health, there is no quick fix,” said Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie.

He called on the Scottish Government to “promote tailored community mental health care”, making sure that support was available for patients, families and carers, and ending the cycle of “readmission due to lack of support in the community”.

A Scottish Government spokesman commented that “mental health services should put individuals, families and carers at the centre of care and treatment”.

He added that the new mental health strategy, to be launched later this year, would deliver “increasingly joined-up and systematic mental health services, which enable people to keep well and take responsibility for their mental health”.

A Stevenage independent sector treatment centre is facing pressure to close after reports that only 50% of its patients are treated within 18 weeks.

Two local Conservative MPs have called for Clinicenta, part of the Carillion group, to lose its contract running Lister Hospital’s Surgicentre (pictured).

The company claims the long average wait time per patient is an artefact of its recent focus on “eliminating patients with long waits”.

Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland said “time has run out” for Clinicenta and it “should not be involved” in providing surgery.

McPartland and Welwyn Hatfield MP Grant Shapps recently met Health Minister Simon Burns to discuss the performance of the centre, which was criticised by the CQC in April.

NHS Hertfordshire had “worked very closely with Clinicenta” to improve the service, said the trust’s Chief Executive Jane Halpin.

“We will continue to take the necessary measures to ensure services to the public are safe and that standards are met,” she added. “We also expect the CQC to be issuing their determination, following further assessments, in the near future.”

A spokeswoman for Clinicenta said the surgery centre was “eliminating patients with long waits” – as a result, over 50% of the patients it had seen in the last month had waited over 18 weeks, but in reality “waiting lists are reducing”.

Dame Barbara Hakin, the National Director for Commissioning, believes reduced numbers of doctors on CCG boards is actually a positive development.

The Government’s commissioning tsar was responding after research found that financial restraints were causing CCGs to find alternative board members.

She called CCGs “mature” for searching for a “wide variety of individuals on the governing bodies”.

An investigation by Pulse magazine found that on 44% of CCG boards fewer than half of members were doctors.

Critics argued that GPs were being forced to accept limited roles in overseeing the commissioning process – despite being placed at the heart of the reforms by the Government.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the NHS Commissioning Board, Dame Barbara said there were actually initial concerns that GPs would dominate CCG boards when the new measures were announced.

“There was, initially, a great degree of concern that because CCGs are membership organisations, built from the basis of the practices… that the governing bodies would be absolutely dominated by GPs and would not start to reflect their communities and key stakeholders,” she said.

“It is interesting that we are starting to get some evidence that the organisations have been really mature and that they aren’t absolutely dominated by GPs.”

A new guide to best practice by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) highlights the success the system has already achieved.

Clinical Commissioning in Action includes examples from 12 CCGs across England where clinically-led projects have improved the quality of healthcare for patients whilst saving money.

The guide was published by the NHS Clinical Commissioners (NHSCC) – a new group formed by the National Association of Primary Care, NHS Alliance and NHS Confederation.

Group leaders admit the switch to clinical commissioning was not easy, but was “absolutely” worth it for the benefit of patients and the NHS.

The move, the guide said, has placed patients at the “heart” of the healthcare system and “services were designed to their needs”.

Examples of successful initiatives introduced by CCGs include correcting prescribing habits in Nottingham and reviewing secondary-care referrals in Northampton.

Dr Steve Kell, GP and Chairman of the Bassetlaw Commissioning Organisation in Nottinghamshire, outlined how GPs had been persuaded to reduce the amount of antibiotic prescriptions which can make patients more likely to develop Clostridium difficile infection.

Also, Dr Peter Wilcynski, interim chairman of NHS Corby CCG, explained how referrals had been reduced by a quarter after GPs agreed to review each case.

The Government’s draft mandate for commissioning is too confusing, too detailed and fails to emphasise its main priorities, directors from the NHS Commissioning Board (NHSCB) have said.

Professor Malcolm Grant, NHSCB Chair, said there are parts of the draft mandate which go “further than you would have wished”.

Speaking at the Board’s monthly meeting in Leeds, Professor Grant said he now aims to rewrite the document with the Department of Health in order to simplify it.

“Given that it is so unique an opportunity, it would be immensely powerful as a document were it to seize the transformation agenda, to understand that the whole point of these difficult reforms has been to transform the quality of healthcare for patients,” he said. “In other words, a document that sets out quite simply what the high level objectives are.”

Mr Grant’s comments were echoed by Sir David Nicholson, NHSCB Chief Executive. “There is something here we can work on but it is some way from where we need it to be,” he said.

“Where you have process-driven targets you need to be really clear about how, and why, and what for. Just listing things down is difficult to communicate and difficult to work with people on.

“We can work on this and get it into a much better place for patients, and the system we want to run.”

Tim Kelsey, the Board’s Director for Patients and Information, added that a “massive historic opportunity” would be missed if the document is not revised correctly.