The average salary of staff at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) fell by £4,796 (18%) in just three years from £26,557 to £21,761 between 2011 and 2014. Mental health services were trashed as part of the failed ‘radical redesign’ which resulted in NSFT being rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Monitor […]
We’ve just receives this shocking press release from Mick Hardy, prospective parliamentary candidate in Norwich North for the Dandy Party and a founder member of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental
Bizarrely, this report leaves The Guardian as the only quality daily newspaper which has not reported on the crisis at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). For how long can what many regard as the natural newspaper of the caring professions ignore what is going on the constituency of the minister responsible for mental
The Times: Officials seize control of shamed trust Read More »
Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health trust failed to act on 258 recommendations from 98 reviews into serious incidents, such as patient deaths, a report has revealed. Former Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said the trust’s failure to act was a “serious concern”. Serious incident reviews take place after there are unexpected or
BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust failed to act on 258 recommendations Read More »
Listen to Anne Humphreys, a carer and campaign member, talking from personal experience about the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating of inadequate and the crisis in mental health services at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), with a particular focus on services for children and young people (CAMHS): Anne and Bec have started
Audio: BBC Radio Suffolk interviews campaign member about CQC report and CAMHS crisis Read More »
Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health trust has become the first in England to be put in special measures. NHS regulator Monitor will send a team to take over the management of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. The decision comes after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reported that the trust was
BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk health trust in special measures Read More »
Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: Special measures will see the appointment of an “improvement director” to provide expertise and hold the trust to account, and arranging a partnership with a high-performing trust. Monitor has also imposed a new condition on NSFT’s licence, enabling the regulator to take further action, such as replacing members of
EDP: Norfolk’s mental health service put in special measures Read More »
NSFT becoming the first mental health trust to be put into special measures was inevitable following the damning CQC inspection and the financial black hole. Our main concern is that service users and frontline staff are not made to pay the price of the NSFT Board’s wasted millions with further cuts to already inadequate services.
Campaign Statement on Monitor putting NSFT into Special Measures Read More »
Matt Reason of the EADT reports: The heartbroken mother of a Sudbury teenager who died in the care of a Suffolk mental health unit has claimed lessons have still not been learnt from her son’s death. Joe Ruler died five years ago at the Wedgwood House unit, in Bury St Edmunds, with an inquest last
Mark Shields of the EDP reports: The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust’s decision follows the decision of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (N&N) to opt out of becoming one of nine pathfinder trusts examining mutual ownership. Chief executive Michael Scott said the decision had been taken by the board in light of feedback from
Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: Mr Lamb, MP for North Norfolk and care minister, suggested the [Norfolk & Norwich] hospital dropped its interest in becoming a mutual because it was under investigation by regulator Monitor for persistently missing waiting time targets. “It is immensely disappointing,” Mr Lamb said. “I obviously understand that they are
Laura Donnelly of the Daily Telegraph reports: Sir Robert believes that many of the worst failings in the NHS occur when clinical staff become powerless — are left “shrugging their shoulders” rather than challenging poor care. As he made a public call for evidence, he told The Telegraph that he feared too many had been hounded out
A woman on suicide watch at a mental health unit in Norwich killed herself after reporting she had been raped by a male patient, an inquest has heard. We wrote about the impact of cuts and inadequate/bank staffing on safety in secure services at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) more than a year
BBC: Rape claim mental health patient ‘took own life’ at Norwich hospital Read More »
When Linda Jones received a call from her distraught husband, one cold day in December 2008, to say that their beloved 17-year-old son, Matthew, had committed suicide in his bedroom, she was inconsolable, as any mother would be. But she was not surprised. The despair the Joneses feel at the state of Britain’s mental-health services
A sad lesson in how to get it so very, very wrong So, those who suggested the emperor was parading naked, and not clad in new finery, have been proved right. The very birth of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was accompanied by a chorus of warnings: about jobs; about finance; and – crucially – about care. Critics
EADT Editorial: A sad lesson in how to get it so very, very wrong Read More »
Norman Lamb MP appears on itv NEWS Anglia as a campaigner, a self-proclaimed mental health champion: “It is misguided to think that you can reduce spending in mental health and not expect consequences to that” So, who is the Minister of State at the Department of Health directly responsible for mental health who has overseen
Video: itv NEWS Anglia – Mental Health Trust condemned as inadequate Read More »
The Daily Telegraph reports on the CQC Inspection of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). The Telegraph also carries a link to the Aidan ‘I’m no Dirty Den’ Thomas email story which will bring back difficult memories to many readers, especially employees of NSFT and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT). Click on
Daily Telegraph: Special measures threat for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust Read More »
Rosie Taylor of the Daily Mail reports: A mental health trust where patients have been punished with a dangerous form of restraint faces being put into special measures. Inspectors found serious problems at the body that oversees mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk. These included patients being held in the face-down prone position and
We were all delighted to meet Andy McNicoll, deservedly Mind Mental Health Journalist of the Year, at our campaign meeting yesterday. Ethical investigative journalism is a critical component in our campaign and Andy McNicoll’s work with the BBC’s Michael Buchanan has been of the highest quality. In November 2013 a campaign led by frontline staff
