County Hall Martineau Lane Norwich Norfolk NR1 2DH Mr M Scott Chief Executive Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust Letter sent by email 9 September 2016 Dear Mr Scott Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) – unexpected deaths Thank you for attending Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (NHOSC) yesterday and presenting NSFT’s response to […]
Today, officials meet at NHS Improvement (NHSI) to decide whether Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation should be released from Special Measures. Usually, when a health trust is put into Special Measures, money follows from commissioners to help put things right. This has not happened at NSFT. In fact, it has been difficult to get NHS
No wonder the Eastern Daily Press has been shortlisted for a mental health journalism award. Andrew Papworth reports: A teenage mental health patient sent to hospital 206 miles away from home while recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a violent assault has said: “We must campaign for local hospitals.” Sarah Barrett was 16 and studying
Tom Bristow of the Archant Investigations Unit reports in the Eastern Daily Press: A record number of patients are dying unexpectedly each month at the region’s troubled mental health trust, despite years of reassurances and reviews into the problem. Campaigners and families of those who have died reacted with horror today to the latest set
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is busy denying its own plans for ‘Putting People First’ now that they have become public. Here is what the Board of NSFT wrote in its own Annual Operational Plan 2016-17 in April 2016 to its regulator, Monitor: Over any year we anticipate our staff numbers to change,
Nikki Fox and Nic Rigby of the BBC report: An NHS trust caring for mentally ill people in Norfolk and Suffolk which was placed in special measures by a care watchdog, is planning to cut 90 posts. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust wants to cut its deficit from £8.9m in 2015-16 to £6.1m in
BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust to cut 90 posts Read More »
Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: There has been a “significant increase” in the number of Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust mental health patients sent out of its area in May, a report to its board has found. Click on the image below to read the article in full on the BBC website:
BBC News: ‘Significant increase’ in mental health patients being sent out of area Read More »
The number of out of trust acute (OOA) bed days has nearly doubled: from 332 days in April 2016 to 647 days in May 2016. Most of these patients are being sent to the expensive, remote and private Mundesley Hospital, where it seems that none of the medical staff have passed the exams of the Royal
CQC, the independent regulator of health, mental health and adult social care in England will be inspecting Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust the week beginning the 11th July. They would like to hear feedback about mental health services before the inspection. There are a number of ways people can feedback their views (CQC are
Help: Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspecting NSFT in July 2016 Read More »
Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: More than a year after Steve Martin learned his mentally ill brother had died alone and amid filth and squalor, his quest for answers goes on. “A really good bloke, who’d do anything for a mate.” That’s how Steve Martin would like to remember his older
David Powles of the EDP has been investigating whether mental health has been receiving its fair share of NHS funding. The EDP has discovered that despite increasing demand and mental health services being rated Inadequate by the Care Quality Commission and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) being in Special Measures, the unaccountable commissioners
EDP: Figures show that mental health funding in Norfolk and Suffolk is not keeping pace Read More »
Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health patient died after a “failure” to respond in a “timely way” by a stretched health trust team, a report says. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust report said there were “serious capacity issues” with its crisis resolution team. It says another death occurred after a patient
BBC News: Mental health death after Norfolk and Suffolk trust failure Read More »
Helen Gilburt, a fellow in health policy at The King’s Fund, writes: The example of Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust provides a stark reminder of the risks associated with undertaking whole-system transformation at scale and pace. To pre-empt increased financial risk and deliver efficiency savings, the trust engaged in delivering a vision of implementing recovery-orientated
Aisha Gani and James Meikle of The Guardian report: Official figures say detentions under the Act have risen nearly 10% in a year, causing concern among charities that services are failing to act early. Mental health campaigners have expressed concern that detentions under the Mental Health Act have risen by almost 10% in England in
The Guardian: Rise in Mental Health Act detentions shows ‘services struggling to cope’ Read More »
What’s the best thing to come out of service strategy? A majority of respondents replied ‘nothing’ when asked their views on the best thing to come out of Service Strategy. One reflected sadly, ‘finding positives is difficult. I rely on finding positives for my clients’. Alexander Report This ‘corporate video’ was made in preparation for
Fantasy Island: The CQC Video Files: ‘Well-led’ Read More »
Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care Mary Docherty and Graham Thornicroft International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2015 9:34 DOI: 10.1186/s13033-015-0023-9 © Docherty and Thornicroft. 2015 Abstract Background Since the economic recession began in 2008 anecdotal reports suggest that mental health services in England have experienced disinvestment, but published data to test
Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found staff at Beach Ward, in Hammerton Court, Julian Hospital, Bowthorpe Road, Norwich, had carried out incomplete record-keeping, incomplete risk-assessments, and that there was a “poor compliance with mental capacity assessments.” Beach Ward, run by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT),
EDP: Eight areas of concern found at one ward in Norfolk hospital Read More »
Before the NHS mental health trusts in Norfolk and Suffolk merged, each had a medical director: After the ‘cost saving’ merger, the new medical management looked like this: The new structure looks like this: The cost of medical management has risen by nearly 50 per cent. NSFT’s income has fallen, mental health services have been
New Ways of Shirking: A Tale of Two Deputies Read More »
More high quality reporting from David Powles into the treatment, or lack of treatment, of Kieran Fulcher on the front page of the EDP. Why does the press have to do the job of our politicians and NHS bureaucracy, just as it had to at Mid Staffs? The upper echelons of the NHS behave as
EDP: Heartbroken family say Norfolk teenager received poor mental health care Read More »
How nobody taking responsibility for NHS cuts works… Enabled by the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Graphic: The NHS Blame Game Read More »
