EDP: Letter: Shocking Figures Reveal Impact of cuts on Mental Health Services

The EDP printed this letter from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk on Saturday 18th June 2016: Dear Editor So, the Independent Inquiry into the deaths of patients under the care of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has concluded that the number of these deaths is no worse […]

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An NSFT Mother and Carer responds to the tragic death of Henry Curtis-Williams

A mother and carer responds to the tragic death of Henry Curtis-Williams: “Again another young person has died when he should have been protected from the dangers of mental illness. Assessed by a psychiatrist as needing no clinical care and released the next day without medication, Henry Curtis-Williams died and his mother and father have been

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Daily Mail: Parents whose fashion student son, 21, died five days after being released from a mental health unit say police failed to tell them when they found him ‘staring over the side of a bridge’

Keiligh Baker of the Daily Mail reports: The parents of a student who took his own life just five days after being released from a psychiatric unit are ‘distraught’ that police and health staff failed to alert them to his mental state. Henry Curtis-Williams was detained by police under the Mental Health Act after he was

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Fiscal Fantasy Island: NSFT spends over half its Out Of Trust Acute (OOA) Beds budget in first two months of the year

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

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RSA Norwich: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

Terry Skyrme reflects on the recent RSA mental health event in Norwich: “Campaign supporters held a protest outside an event organized by the RSA at St Michael’s church in Norwich. Speakers at the event represented the “Third sector” and other mainstream services such as Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), the main provider of

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The Norwich Radical: The Elephant in the Room: Norfolk’s Mental Health Crisis

Hannah Rose reports in The Norwich Radical from the recent RSA event: Instead, I was perturbed by the oddly formal sense of occasion — cheese and wine were offered on arrival — and I was given instructions to mingle. I had the distinct feeling that I was definitely at the wrong meeting. Only around fifty chairs

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NSFT – A Warning from History: Unexpected deaths: 2013 vs 2016: Has anything changed?

Compare what Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) claimed in 2013 with what NSFT claims in 2016. What has changed except that NSFT suffered 45 unexpected deaths in the first three months of 2016 compared with 22 per quarter in 2012-13? While the number of deaths has doubled, the excuses remain the same. Most

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Help: Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspecting NSFT in July 2016

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

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Protest: RSA: “Throwing money we don’t have at a problem that just won’t go away is not the answer.”

Tomorrow evening, on Tuesday 7th June 2016, we will be protesting at the failure to invite service users, carers and professionals to an event the purpose of which is said to be finding ‘affordable, innovative new solutions’ to mental health. We will be assembling outside St Michael at Plea in Norwich from 5.45 p.m. A

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Invitation: 6th June 2016: Meeting with NSFT about unexpected deaths at 6 p.m. today at Hellesdon Hospital

We’re meeting the Director of Nursing, Jane Sayer, and the Medical Director, Bohdan Solomka, of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to discuss the extremely disappointing report into the alarming increase in unexpected deaths at NSFT to a record number. Worse still, the number of unexpected deaths continues to rise but NSFT remains complacent: there

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Complaint letter: “Don’t campaign to save… campaign for a radically different new service… with entirely new management”

A service user of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) writes: “I am a user of this service for more than fifteen years. In the last four years the service as become unacceptably poor. I have plenty of evidence. Although I agree that services have to be defended in as much as good levels

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BBC News: Norfolk & Suffolk trust records its highest number of unexpected mental health deaths

The BBC reports: An NHS mental health service, which was the first in England to be placed in special measures, has recorded its highest number of unexpected deaths. Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) recorded 157 deaths in 2014-15, compared to 88 deaths in 2012-13. Verita, which the trust instructed to carry out the investigation,

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EDP: Revealed: The six figure payouts for staff leaving the Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust

David Powles of the Eastern Daily Press and Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times report: Two consultants involved in a “strategic reorganisation” which saw hundreds of jobs axed at the region’s mental health trust, each received payouts worth more than £200,000. Day five of our five-part series into public sector pay can reveal

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Gallery: March for Mental Health, King’s Lynn

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

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EDP: Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

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

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March for Mental Health: Save the few remaining beds in West Norfolk: Saturday 23rd April 2016, The Walks, King’s Lynn, 12 p.m.

Community campaigners, concerned citizens and service users will be taking to the streets of King’s Lynn on Saturday 23rd April to protest at the closure of the Fermoy Unit, the only local in-patient, NHS facility for mental health in the area.  Starting at twelve noon at the Bandstand in the Walks, the event will include

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EDP: Last mental health inpatient unit in West Norfolk closes to new admissions

Nicholas Carding of the EDP reports: Mental health patients in West Norfolk who need acute treatment face being sent to Norwich or further for a hospital bed after bosses closed the last remaining unit to new admissions. But a spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk described the situation

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NHS Staff Survey 2015 – Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is appalling – yet again

Yet again, these results are appalling. Yet again, they are not only bottom quartile, they are bottom quartile of the bottom quartile. Percentage of staff witnessing potentially harmful errors, near misses or incidents in last month – worst of 29 mental health trusts in England – for the third year running Job satisfaction – NSFT

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EDP: Last mental health inpatient unit in West Norfolk under threat prompting fears over bed provision

Nicholas Carding of the EDP reports: Bosses at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) said they could not rule out closing the Fermoy Unit in King’s Lynn, because of problems with its design and safety. The unit is the only inpatient facility for mental-health patients in west Norfolk. Last month research by this

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BBC News: Mental health deaths in Norfolk and Suffolk prompts investigation

BBC News reports: An NHS mental health trust has announced it is commissioning an investigation into the rising number of unexpected deaths of patients. The Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust had 129 such deaths (2014-15) – up from 61 (2012-13) and higher than other mental health trusts in the UK. Michael Scott, chief executive

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