Healthwatch Norfolk: Question Time: Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) Public Meeting 17/07/17

UPDATE: We’ll be protesting about the terrible state of mental health services in Norfolk from 5 p.m. outside the venue before going in at 6 p.m. Join us! Healthwatch Norfolk is supposed to be the ‘consumer champion for health and social care’. Sadly, despite funding of £600,000 per year from Norfolk County Council, Healthwatch Norfolk […]

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Fact check: EDP: ‘Things are moving in the right direction’ at region’s mental health trust, says chief executive

Geraldine Scott of the EDP ‘interviews’ Michael ‘Payrise’ Scott, the £175,000 per year Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT): The region’s mental health trust has reported it has seen financial growth at the same time as slashing its deficit for the first time in five years. That sounds great. Sadly, ‘slashing

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Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 3: EDP: A staggering waste: More than £1.6m spent sending region’s mental health patients to private hospital in just seven months

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: More than £1.6m has been spent by the region’s mental health trust on sending patients to a private hospital since it was put into special measures by inspectors last year. Mental health campaigners alleged Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) continue to use the private Mundesley Hospital,

Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 3: EDP: A staggering waste: More than £1.6m spent sending region’s mental health patients to private hospital in just seven months Read More »

Duplicitous Norman Lamb: EDP: Mental health campaigner and nurse tells tribunal of upset at MP’s inaccurate claim she was partner of Clive Lewis

Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A Norfolk councillor has described her upset after an MP wrongly told a BBC journalist she was the partner of Norwich South MP Clive Lewis. An email was sent from the account of North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb to the BBC’s political editor for east England Deborah

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Duplicitous Norman Lamb: EDP: Look East journalist Sally Chidzoy takes BBC to employment tribunal for harassment, victimisation and sex discrimination

Dan Grimmer of the Eastern Daily Press reports: One of the BBC’s most high profile journalists in East Anglia alleges she was pursued by bosses at the corporation after raising concerns about her manager’s links to a charity funded by the Chinese government and interference by a Norfolk MP in a story. Sadly, award-winning Sally

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 4: Andrew Hopkins, Finance Director then acting Chief Executive then Finance Director, NSFT

During the radical redesign, Andrew Hopkins was Finance Director of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), becoming acting Chief Executive after the resignation of Aidan Thomas in July 2013. While Andrew Hopkins ‘acted-up’, NSFT employed astonishingly expensive interim finance directors. NSFT wasted unbelievable sums, millions of pounds, on redundancy and early retirement payments in the midst

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 3: Maggie Wheeler, Chair, NSFT

Because of her then status in the Norwich Labour Party, and the frequent use of politically-correct buzzwords like ‘recovery’ and ‘ImROC’, many people trusted Maggie Wheeler and her Board when it promised ‘new services will be as effective as they are now, if not better’ as a result of the Trust Service Strategy (TSS) at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), better

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 2: Aidan Thomas, Chief Executive, NSFT

Aidan ‘I’m No Dirty Den’ Thomas was the Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) during the Trust Service Strategy (TSS) consultation process, better known as the ‘radical redesign’. The ‘radical redesign’ was condemned by the King’s Fund in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) and is widely regarded as an unmitigated disaster which resulted in

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 1: Hadrian Ball, Medical Director, NSFT

Hadrian Ball was the Medical Director and highest-paid member of the Board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) throughout the Trust Service Strategy (TSS), better known as the ‘radical redesign’. The ‘radical redesign’ was condemned by the King’s Fund in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) and is widely regarded as an unmitigated disaster which

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Revolving Doors: EDP: ‘It really is a disgrace’ – Norfolk community health bosses anger union with staff wage cuts

Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Norfolk Community Health and Care Trust (NCH&C) looks after thousands of patients a day through nurses and therapists visiting people in their homes, as well as in community hospitals, including Norwich Community Hospital on Bowthorpe Road. But it has angered Unison by increasing total board wages and

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EDP: Third CCG boss resigns inside three months

Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Dr Sue Crossman, chief officer of West Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), today announced she has resigned after seven years as the health commissioning lead for West Norfolk. It follows the resignations of Andy Evans, of Great Yarmouth and Waveney CCG, earlier this month, and Mark Taylor

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EDP: Revealed: The six figure payouts for staff leaving the Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust

David Powles of the Eastern Daily Press and Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times report: Two consultants involved in a “strategic reorganisation” which saw hundreds of jobs axed at the region’s mental health trust, each received payouts worth more than £200,000. Day five of our five-part series into public sector pay can reveal

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EDP: The best April Fool’s Day posts we’ve spotted in Norfolk, Suffolk and Fenland

Courtney Pochin of the EDP reports: Salary cuts The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk released a statement today, which said that the Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) was going to “voluntarily reduce his salary by £35,000”. If only the greed of Michael Scott and the

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NSFT – A Warning from History: Sunday Telegraph – NHS fatcats take pay offs – then come back for more

A series of NHS executives who quit their posts with lucrative payoffs have been re-employed on temporary contracts worth thousands of pounds a day. Stephen Dorrell, chairman of the Commons health select committee, said: “This is the sort of thing that gives effective management a really bad name.” Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of The Patients

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Sister campaigns: itv NEWS Anglia – Health campaigners win fight over Lifeworks closure plans

Congratulations to all those involved in saving Lifeworks in Cambridge. We should have posted this sooner. Click on the image to visit the itv website and watch the video. Warning: this video contains potentially distressing images of Aidan Thomas, former chief executive of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) and initiator of the massive

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Devastating HealthEast consultation results: Public decisively rejects closure of 12 beds for older people at Carlton Court by nearly 7:1

The permanent closure of 12 older people’s beds. HealthEast is interested in your feedback on the elements of these proposals. Permanently closing 12 beds at Laurel Ward, Carlton Court. “These are wonderful beds in a first class facility please keep them open. This proposal effectively means that the number of beds for people who require acute

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Recruitment Crisis Newsflash: Rather than spend money on frontline staff or beds, another expensive spin doctor joins NSFT instead

  We can be sure that Melanie Woodnick isn’t paid like one of Jonathon Fagge’s band 1-4s. Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) doesn’t have enough money for beds or crisis and community team staff but can afford ‘public affairs consultants’. Astonishing. There isn’t a bed, community, crisis team or recruitment crisis, is there?

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