It has long been clear that Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) tries to manipulate its inappropriate out of area placement (OAP) bed statistics when the Care Quality Commission (CQC) comes to inspect. As the graph below shows, out of area bed usage was again artificially reduced in the run-up to the latest full […]
Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The region’s mental health trust has pledged to eradicate the use of out of area beds by 2021. Oh dear. That’s three years away, a national target and seven years after commissioners’ original promise to end the use of out of area beds before the end of
EDP: Mental health trust’s pledge to eradicate out of area placements by 2021 Read More »
Gemma Mitchell of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A mental health boss has hit out and branded it ‘utterly indefensible’ that a bid for more than £5m which would be used to address safety concerns was snubbed by the government. We understand that the Improvement Director, imposed upon Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT)
Gemma Mitchell of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: A Suffolk father is facing a six-hour round trip to visit his vulnerable son following the closure of a vital mental health unit in Ipswich. A Stowmarket man whose 20-year-old son is a patient on Lark Ward, based in the grounds of Ipswich Hospital, has spoken
Healthwatch Suffolk comments on the announcement of the closure of the Suffolk PICU by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT): Healthwatch Suffolk note with serious concern the news that the Lark Ward, a psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) run by Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) at Woodlands, will close from Friday 6th April
Matthew Gudgin of the BBC interviews a spokesperson for our campaign and the interim Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Julie Cave, about the closure of yet another 36 mental health beds in Norfolk and Suffolk. We are asked whether we have any confidence in the newly-appointed Chief Executive of NSFT,
The BBC reports: Thirty-six mental health beds are being closed by Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, eight of them permanently. Further details have emerged after it was revealed a mental health ward in Ipswich would be temporarily shut. The trust said the closures “were in the best interests of patients”. But the Campaign to
BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health beds closures ‘shocking’ Read More »
Gemma Mitchell of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: The region’s beleaguered mental health trust has had to shut 36 beds since autumn, it has been revealed. Beds have closed in Ipswich, Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. At least eight of the bed closures are permanent. Service users and carers and their organisations received little
EADT: ‘This is a humanitarian disaster’ – Mental health trust closes 36 beds Read More »
Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: “Tell them you are suicidal and they do nothing”. This is one of the shocking comments made by people in desperate need about Norfolk’s mental health crisis care. They are revealed today in a damning report by Healthwatch Norfolk, which spoke to 680 crisis care users –
Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A man was held in police custody for nearly 60 hours while he waited for a mental health bed to become available. The man – one of 10 similar cases recorded by police between May 2016 and February 2017 – was arrested for a public order offence
In February of last year, we challenged the Board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) about rumours that it intended to close the last mental health beds in West Norfolk at the Fermoy Unit in King’s Lynn: Bosses at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) said they could not rule out
Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A mental health patient was kept in a police cell for three days in King’s Lynn because no bed could be found for him. A second person needing mental health treatment was detained at Aylsham police station for 36 hours as the region’s mental health service struggled
EDP Front Page: Mental health patient kept in Norfolk police cell for three days Read More »
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
Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Dr Sue Crossman, chief officer of West Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), today announced she has resigned after seven years as the health commissioning lead for West Norfolk. It follows the resignations of Andy Evans, of Great Yarmouth and Waveney CCG, earlier this month, and Mark Taylor
EDP: Third CCG boss resigns inside three months Read More »
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
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 »
Today, members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk from throughout East Anglia joined local people from West Norfolk to protest against the closure of one quarter of the remaining acute mental health beds in West Norfolk at the Fermoy Unit in King’s Lynn and to highlight the threat to
Gallery: March for Mental Health, King’s Lynn Read More »
Sophie Biddle of the EDP reports: More than 100 campaigners pounded the pavements from The Walks and through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema to hear speeches. The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Centre, an in-patient NHS facility for mental health, facing closure. Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, is youth officer
EDP: Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts Read More »
