EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust’s use of controversial out of area beds rockets by 87%

Mental health patients in Norfolk and Suffolk are increasingly being sent to beds across the country – despite pledges to reduce the practice.

Sending patients out of area has cost the trust £530,000 so far this year.

Out-of-area placements saw an increase in bed days from 381 in April to 713 in May – a rise of 332 or 87%.

This cost the trust £340,000, according to papers presented to the board yesterday.

During 2013/14, 113 patients were sent to out-of-area beds outside Norfolk and Suffolk at a cost of £1.5m.

And the NSFT is now in a dispute with the area’s health commissioners over the cost of sending patients to out-of-area beds.

Andrew Hopkins, the trust’s director of finance, said the cost was a particular issue in central Norfolk.

He described it as the “most significant element of the dispute with the Central Norfolk CCG”.

A spokesman for the central Norfolk CCG said: “The funding of out-of-area beds and other core services provided by NSFT – is the subject of ongoing, confidential contract negotiations and therefore it is neither appropriate nor in the interest of any parties for the CCGs to comment further.”

As the NHS Blame Game starts again, let’s remember that this isn’t simply a financial matter: the human cost of transporting people in distress hundreds of miles, often in caged vehicles, many miles away from their friends, families and care team is inhumane and unacceptable.

What is Central Norfolk CCG? We thought there were three CCGs in central Norfolk: Norwich, South Norfolk and North Norfolk. Is this a rebranding exercise or another reorganisation? How do we hold a not-existent NHS organisation to account? It is Kafkaesque. Not that we’ll miss the astonishing salaries the CCG Boards pay themselves.

In previous years the trust has had to send patients to places as far away as East Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.

The NSFT cut its number of beds and staff as part of a “radical redesign” in 2012.

But that left it short of places and led to £600,000 being spent on out-of-area beds in just one month in 2014.

And patients are constantly sent to other areas because there are not enough beds in East Anglia.

There’s another article about NSFT in the printed version of the newspaper today.

Read this story in full on the EDP website by clicking on the image below:

EDP Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust’s use of controversial out of area beds rockets by 87pc

1 thought on “EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust’s use of controversial out of area beds rockets by 87%”

  1. Norwich CCG paid a private consultant to review mental health services in Norfolk. His report pointed out that there is no strategic planning between CCGs especially with regard to inpatient services. It also pointed out that it makes no sense to rotate the Lead Responsibility for mental health from one CCG to the next. Perhaps they do it because mental health is a hot potato. Why Norwich CCG paid a consultant to tell them something our Campaign has already told them for nothing…God knows! In the meantime the CCGs continue blatantly to breach their statutory duty under Section 140 1983 Mental Health Act by not ensuring that beds are available for urgent admissions.

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