Financial scandal: NSFT recruiting to replace doctor paid thousands to leave

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We’ve written before about the financial scandal of the £7.3 million redundancy programme at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), which paid experienced and highly qualified staff to leave, wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money, placed services at risk, damaged continuity and quality of care and created a recruitment crisis. NSFT claimed at […]

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BBC: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust funding concerns

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Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health trust covering an area where care minister Norman Lamb is MP has warned it is struggling to provide a “safe and effective” service. Gary Page, chair of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said “fundamental” changes were needed. Mr Page told the BBC: “We welcome the

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EDP: New chief’s pledge to open new mental health beds in Norwich

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At last, after a year of campaigning, Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has finally acknowledged that the ‘so-called bed crisis’ is a real bed crisis and that beds can be opened as well as closed.  Thank you, Michael Scott, Chief Executive of NSFT for starting to listen to us! “[Michael Scott] told members

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BBC Radio Norfolk: Campaigners Emma Corlett and Terry Skyrme outline the crisis at NSFT and likely impact of Carlton Court closure. Duplicitous Norman Lamb pretends to be in opposition again

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Listen below to Norman Lamb yet again pretend that he is in opposition rather than the Minister of State at the Department of Health directly responsible for mental health. Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Norman Lamb’s own local mental health trust, is in constant crisis and heading towards financial collapse. Yet, unbelievably, Norman Lamb

BBC Radio Norfolk: Campaigners Emma Corlett and Terry Skyrme outline the crisis at NSFT and likely impact of Carlton Court closure. Duplicitous Norman Lamb pretends to be in opposition again Read More »

BBC Norfolk and Suffolk mental health bed cuts criticised

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A spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Suffolk and Norfolk said: “The campaign is very concerned about the loss of the 136 suite which provides a vital place of safety for people who are some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. “With regards to the reduction in mental health

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Financial crisis: EDP ‘It can not go on’ – CEO’s warning on mental health funding

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Michael Scott, who took over as boss of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) earlier this year, said his organisation was already around £1m in deficit for the current financial year and the way mental health services were funded could not carry on. It is great news that Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

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Press Release: Trust and campaign agree to work together to improve mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk

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Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk have agreed to work together to ensure the services provided meet the needs of both counties. The Trust’s Chief Executive, Michael Scott, and Chair, Gary Page, met representatives from the Campaign in July to listen to services

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mummabearuk: A CAMHS carer responds to Norman Lamb’s ‘taskforce’

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Anne, a CAMHS carer and campaign supporter, writes: “So now the press embargo has been lifted I can write about Norman Lamb’s Task Force which has been announced in today’s media. So he’s finally decided that children and young people’s mental health services need improving – has he really only just thought of this! If

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

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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

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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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Quiz Answer: The increase in staffing at NSFT after the three month recruitment drive was NINE!

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Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) managed to add just NINE out of its pledged 269 additional staff. That is only 3.3 per cent of its target and an average net increase of three per month. This isn’t a laughing matter.  Staff are desperately needed because: community team caseloads are unmanageable and unsafe; wards

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EDP: Mental health trust under fire again after second man falls to his death at the Castle Mall

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One of our key recommendations for ending the crisis in mental health services at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is the restoration of decent mental health services for the most vulnerable. The specialist assertive outreach teams which national guidance and evidence recommends have not just been cut but rather completely closed, leaving those

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Lara Norris: Tick Box – Cardboard Box – Soap Box

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  The following is reproduced from the blog of Lara Norris, a campaign supporter and prospective parliamentary candidate for Great Yarmouth, with her kind permission: “This week I want to tell you the story of Holly (not her real name) and why she illustrates how people have ceased to be at the centre of our

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

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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

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

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“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

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“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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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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