MENTAL health liaison services at Shropshire’s two main hospitals are seeing “increased demand”, as the trust in charge aims to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Cathy Riley, a care group Managing Director at the Midlands Partnership Foundation NHS Trust, said both Covid-19 and its effects and unrelated patient contact that was delayed because of the pandemic are behind the rise.

Ms Riley, who leads MPFT’s Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Care Group, told the trust’s board that “all services have now been restored” in the area, and said increased demand was in line with the rest of England.

She added that she was “reassured” by the way the trust, which runs mental health, physical health, learning disability and adult social care services primarily across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, had adapted during the height of the pandemic.

She said: “All services have now been restored in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and has gone through the system restoration process successfully.

“Mental health services are experiencing Covid-generated and Covid-suppressed demands, as expected, and there will be a focus on meeting and managing those demands as part of our recovery process over the remainder of the year.”

She said the trust was recruiting in areas including its urgent mental health phone line and its young people’s crisis service.

“Liaison, in both the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital, and our crisis services are currently experiencing increased demands which is in line with the national theme,” Ms Riley said.

Mental health liaison teams assess patients at acute hospitals who may have psychological issues.

“It has been very reassuring to look at what our trust has done during Covid, and that they are very much in line with the mental health transformation programme,” Ms Riley added.

“But also we have delivered some of the priorities we have set for the system, particularly in reference to out-of-hours care.”