Community Care: ‘Critically unwell’ mental health patients sent home due to bed shortages

Sue Bailey, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said that the survey findings showed mental health services were at a “tipping point”. “Continued cuts to services can only result in further distress and discomfort for patients, many of whom are young, vulnerable, some of whom are forced to receive care far from home. This […]

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Devastating HealthEast consultation results: less than 10% of respondents accept NSFT’s proposals to close beds and move to one site

“Proposal One: Adult mental health services This proposal is to reduce the number of adult acute beds from 28 across two sites (Northgate Hospital and Carlton Court) to 20 beds at one of the two sites and to develop one enhanced crisis resolution and home treatment team to cover the whole Great Yarmouth and Waveney area. There will also be

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Devastating HealthEast Consultation results: “There is a general lack of confidence in the NSFT”

“For NSFT to attempt to justify further bed reductions while simultaneously cutting community services and spending significant sums on private out of area placement beggars belief. It is a disservice to those we care for and to the staff attempting to manage these serious risks in very difficult circumstances.” “In the current financial reality the CCG and NSFT

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Community Care: ‘It feels like some lives are worth more than others’: working on the mental health frontline

Emma Corlett writes in Community Care (trigger alert). “As I say, some lives it seems are worth more than others. Where has the humanity gone? It’s a damning indictment of our society and the state of our services that the local shopping centre has now erected safety hoardings to prevent similar incidents. I have no words.”

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You never know when it will be you: Join us at the protest tomorrow because you’re lucky to be able to

We’re speaking up for the voiceless and the vulnerable. Here’s an email we received yesterday from a campaign member who regularly attends our meetings and was at our last protest at Hellesdon Hospital. They rely on mental health services, as at least one in four of us will do during our lives: currently in [redacted

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Campaign response to intimidating email from Messrs. Page & Hopkins of NSFT

“Sadly, it is necessary to comment upon the recent email from Mr Page, NSFT Chair, to all NSFT staff. Firstly, we are not a Unison campaign. Unison has no representative on the committee and, although we have received a donation from Unison for which we are most grateful, we have received significant sums from individuals

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The Independent: Mental-health patients driven hundreds of miles for treatment

Charlie Cooper writes in The Independent: A crisis in mental health care has been declared by NHS staff in East Anglia, across a region covering the constituencies of two government health ministers. Nurses say that it has become common for there to be no beds available for mental health patients in all of Norfolk and

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BBC Radio 4 Today: Michael Buchanan reports on the beds crisis and Norman Lamb blames everyone except himself

We’re proud to have helped Michael Buchanan of the BBC and Andy McNicoll of Community Care in their excellent work exposing the scandalous bed crisis on the national stage. Even this year at the HealthEast consultations, the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Operations Director continued to push for approval of the bed closures

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Tribe PR: Is NSFT’s ‘radical redesign’ the Turkey Twizzler of mental healthcare?

  Campaign supporters have told us that Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has appointed Tribe PR and Andrew Stronach Communications to help it with its PR at a cost of thousands of pounds even though NSFT has its own Communications Team. The Tribe PR website outlines the company’s skills in ‘crisis management’ as

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Downfall video: NSFT leadership team in the Hellesdon Hospital bunker

Watch the video below. If you are an Apple user and have trouble viewing the embedded video you can view it directly on Youtube. Sorry, this issue is a sometime side effect of the on-going war between Google and Apple which is beyond our control. If you don’t understand why this Downfall parody is satirical humour read this.

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BBC Radio Norfolk: Campaigner Terry Skyrme tells the truth as Jonathon Fagge of Norwich CCG and Kathy Chapman of NSFT admit they have failed to eliminate out-of-area beds and have broken their promises

Remember this? Four months ago, Mark Taylor, chief executive of North Norfolk CCG, on behalf of all the central Norfolk CCGs, promised: “Although the numbers are small, we want it to end by April. As commissioners we do not want people to go out of area and we want to stop that as soon as

BBC Radio Norfolk: Campaigner Terry Skyrme tells the truth as Jonathon Fagge of Norwich CCG and Kathy Chapman of NSFT admit they have failed to eliminate out-of-area beds and have broken their promises Read More »

Community Care: Mental health staff consider industrial action over ‘serious safety concerns’ with crisis care

“Union members at the mental health trust serving care minister Norman Lamb’s north Norfolk constituency could be balloted on taking industrial action in protest at ‘serious safety concerns’ with services. The Unison branch at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust voted unanimously to start the process of holding a ballot for industrial action after Approved

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EDP Letters: Mental health care has failed a young person in my family

“I read with great interest your article in Wednesday’s EDP about the plight of mental health patients in Norfolk. I am experiencing a situation in our family affected by the failings of mental health care in Norfolk. I would stress how kind, considerate and professional the very many mental health workers who have been involved

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BBC Radio Norfolk: NSFT crisis in mental health services dominates morning schedule

  Click the images below to listen on iPlayer to the two morning shows featuring the crisis in mental health services at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT):    

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Crisis Team Newsflash: CRHT calls in the unions as NSFT tries to recruit agency staff on £25 per hour

We have written extensively about Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (NSFT) botched redundancy programme which has wasted many millions of pounds and introduced unnecessary and unacceptable risks into the delivery of vital services. Now, exactly what we warned would happen is happening. This is the job advertisement for a band six Community Psychiatric Nurse

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EDP: Concern over pressure on mental health staff in Norfolk because of high caseloads

Yesterday, a few of the truths told by this campaign emerged at the NSFT Board meeting in Norwich, as reported in the EDP: “Mental health chiefs have insisted they have a plan to tackle high caseloads after it emerged that almost 400 patients in Norfolk were waiting to be assigned to a community worker… This

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Unbelievable: After spending £7.3 million on redundancies, NSFT launches a massive recruitment drive

Some staff were paid to leave Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) only last week. NSFT has wasted millions of pounds and put services at risk. What a scandal. Soon to qualify? Newly qualified? Experienced? Any level of experience… Staff Nurses and Mental Health Workers/Practitioners All jobs… Temporary or permanent… Band 5 and Band 6 Other bands

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27th Day of Lent: Going without hope of genuine consultation and influence

Rachel writes: “Carers once believed that Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) listened to the views of people with mental health problems and their carers. Currently, people are unable to understand why NSFT’s Carer and Service User Councils bar attendance from people who use mental health services and their carers. This exclusive policy is

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