Independent: Children’s mental healthcare in crisis, Care Minister Norman Lamb admits

“…charities and local councils warned of a “national crisis” in young people’s mental health. Nearly half of all local authorities have slashed funding for services after seeing their budgets cut by the Coalition Government’s austerity drive – with funding for children’s mental health reduced by as much as 94 per cent in some areas.” Whose […]

Independent: Children’s mental healthcare in crisis, Care Minister Norman Lamb admits Read More »

Legal: NHS Trusts & CCGs face criminal prosecution and unlimited fines for inappropriate discharges and placements. Individual staff face up to two years’ imprisonment

Below is an excellent and informative bulletin on the subject of the legal obligations of NHS trusts regarding discharges and placements.  It was prepared by the former solicitors of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Mills & Reeve, in July 2012.  The bulletin was widely circulated within NSFT.  Let’s hope that NSFT’s new in-house

Legal: NHS Trusts & CCGs face criminal prosecution and unlimited fines for inappropriate discharges and placements. Individual staff face up to two years’ imprisonment Read More »

EDP: Carlton Colville woman blasts mental health chiefs over cuts

A woman whose husband suffers from dementia has criticised proposed cuts to mental health services in Waveney and Great Yarmouth, saying lives are being destroyed by measures designed to save money. Mrs Sale, of Rushmere Road, Carlton Colville, said her husband was sent to the Coach House specialist dementia care home in Hemsby, where she

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BBC News: King’s Fund – ‘Shunted around the country’ – the coalition government has actually overseen a decline in spending on mental health

Hugh Pym of the BBC writes: ‘Shunted around the country’ The King’s Fund think tank says that the coalition government has actually overseen a decline in spending on mental health. Its analysis suggests inflation-adjusted spending has decreased from £11.5bn in the 2010/11 financial year to £11.3 bn two years later which, given the increase in

BBC News: King’s Fund – ‘Shunted around the country’ – the coalition government has actually overseen a decline in spending on mental health Read More »

Wonderful news: NSFT Operations Director Kathy Chapman PROMOTED!

It was perhaps inevitable, after working as the architect of the radical redesign at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) which has truly transformed mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk, that Kathy Chapman would attract attention on a national level. Chapman’s innovative approach to designing mental health services brought local and national news

Wonderful news: NSFT Operations Director Kathy Chapman PROMOTED! Read More »

Why the CQC selected NSFT for early inspection in its own words: Decision to schedule Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for Inspection

We wrote to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) because Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has been claiming that the forthcoming CQC inspection is routine/random and that the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk & Suffolk was being inaccurate and misleading to write that NSFT had been selected as a priority for early

Why the CQC selected NSFT for early inspection in its own words: Decision to schedule Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for Inspection Read More »

EDP: Mental health trust warns of more jobs cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk as part of plans to make £44m more savings

Campaigners have pledged to lobby Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (NSFT) board of directors meeting today over a new plan, which says that extra savings of £44m would need to be found by 2019, if there is no major increase in mental health funding. Members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in

EDP: Mental health trust warns of more jobs cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk as part of plans to make £44m more savings Read More »

NSFT pulls its Five Year Strategic Plan from the internet

But you can still read our copy of the five year strategic plan here. The plan begins on page 20 of the pdf. Strange the way it disappeared after we criticised it. The papers for the Board of Directors meeting in Swaffam tomorrow don’t contain it any longer. How embarrassing.

NSFT pulls its Five Year Strategic Plan from the internet Read More »

26th June 2014: Help us oppose the NSFT Board’s five year plan for further ‘savings’ of £44.1 million, 200 more job losses and more reorganisations and chaos

Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Chair, Gary Page, is too busy watching the football in sunny Brazil to attend the next public Board of Directors meeting at The Green Britain Centre (formerly Eco-Tech) in Swaffam on Thursday, 26th June 2014. But it is vital that we attend. Join us to oppose the rubber stamping

26th June 2014: Help us oppose the NSFT Board’s five year plan for further ‘savings’ of £44.1 million, 200 more job losses and more reorganisations and chaos Read More »

BBC: Mental health services ‘a car crash’

Sue Bailey speaks the truth: Mental health services in England are “a car crash” and the health secretary is not taking the problems seriously, according to the outgoing president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Prof Sue Bailey told BBC News mental health services were “in crisis”. Click on the image below to read more:

BBC: Mental health services ‘a car crash’ Read More »

NSFT seeks to reduce out of area placements by refusing emergency admissions rather than by providing necessary beds

A member of the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) crisis team writes: “NSFT seems determined to reduce the number of out of area placements but not by providing an adequate number of local beds. A senior NSFT manager is going around the country trying to discharge out of area patients. How can this

NSFT seeks to reduce out of area placements by refusing emergency admissions rather than by providing necessary beds Read More »

Exclusive: Letter to HealthEast from all Waveney AMHPs exposes crisis in Suffolk and calls for NSFT Executive Board to resign

“NSFT are not to fit to lead or manage mental health services in Great Yarmouth and Waveney. The testimony and reflection above demonstrates this. As such, nothing they propose can be trusted by the CCG to be able to address the endemic problems they themselves have caused. The Waveney AMHP group calls on the CCG

Exclusive: Letter to HealthEast from all Waveney AMHPs exposes crisis in Suffolk and calls for NSFT Executive Board to resign Read More »

BBC: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health patients in 200-mile bed trek

“Some mental health patients in Suffolk and Norfolk are having to travel more than 200 miles (321km) for a bed, it has emerged. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the situation was “unacceptable”. Unison urged the government to develop a “rescue package” for mental health services, which they said left 22 patients facing the journey last

BBC: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health patients in 200-mile bed trek Read More »

EDP: ‘Unacceptable’ – health secretary Jeremy Hunt pledges action on out of area mental health placements in Norfolk and Suffolk

Adam Gretton of the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) reports: The government’s health minister pledged to “do what it takes” to address the pressure on mental health beds after being told of some Norfolk and Suffolk patients having to travel more than 200 miles for a bed. When told about the situation at NSFT, Mr Hunt

EDP: ‘Unacceptable’ – health secretary Jeremy Hunt pledges action on out of area mental health placements in Norfolk and Suffolk Read More »

Video: Crisis at NSFT is main story on BBC One Sunday Politics East

In depth interviews with Emma Corlett, Denise Day and Norman Lamb regarding the on-going mental health crisis at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) presented by Etholle George. Yet again, NSFT fails to put anybody forward to discuss the beds and community crises and Norman Lamb blames everybody else and claims to be powerless

Video: Crisis at NSFT is main story on BBC One Sunday Politics East Read More »

Newsflash: NSFT a priority for inspection by CQC under new approach

The CQC website reports: The first batch of NHS mental health providers will be inspected and rated in October using our new approach. The inspections will assess the four providers to see if the service overall is: safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led. They will be carried out by a mixture of

Newsflash: NSFT a priority for inspection by CQC under new approach Read More »

Audio: BBC Suffolk interview & opinion poll as NSFT Chair Mr Page denies both 30th April out of area deadline and bed closures in Suffolk

Listen to Mr Page, the chair of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), claim that no beds have been or will be closed in Suffolk – until a local listener contacts BBC Suffolk to say that NSFT has closed beds at Carlton Court in Suffolk and is involved in a consultation with HealthEast over further

Audio: BBC Suffolk interview & opinion poll as NSFT Chair Mr Page denies both 30th April out of area deadline and bed closures in Suffolk Read More »

EDP: Graphic – Mental health patients sent to Yorkshire, London and North East after trust misses target to end bed placements outside of Norfolk

But Terry Skyrme, who works as a social worker for the NHS trust and member of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, said that when he left work last Wednesday there were 21 patients in out of area beds, with the vast majority in private hospitals across the country. He

EDP: Graphic – Mental health patients sent to Yorkshire, London and North East after trust misses target to end bed placements outside of Norfolk Read More »

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