EDP: Opinion: ‘The biggest disgrace at mental health trust is that people were warned, and failed to act’

Former mental health nurse and Norfolk County Council mental health champion Emma Corlett writes in the Eastern Daily Press: As yet another damning report about Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is released, we need to take a look at why local mental health services are in such a mess. A perfect storm of […]

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EADT: ‘This is a humanitarian disaster’ – Mental health trust closes 36 beds

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

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EDP: Ex-staff members speak out over ‘rotten foundations’ of mental health trust

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Healthcare professionals who used to work at the region’s mental health trust have slammed “rotten foundations” stemming from a radical redesign six years ago. Former employees have spoken of their disappointment at the latest inspection report into Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) which plunged the

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BBC News: Directors at ‘unsafe’ mental health trust NSFT got pay rise

BBC News reports: Four directors at an “unsafe” mental health trust received £10k pay rises, despite failing to improve standards. As reported in the EADT, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) boosted pay to £108,000 after it came out of special measures in 2016. A campaign group said the pay rise was “completely unjustifiable”.

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Greed: EADT: ‘Inadequate’ mental health trust NSFT slammed for directors’ £10,000 pay rises

Gemma Mitchell of the Eastern Anglian Daily Times has one of the most shocking exclusives we have ever read about the Board of Shame of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT): Campaigners have reacted with outrage after it emerged four bosses at the region’s failing mental health trust were each awarded £10,000 pay rises

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EDP: Not enough staff, not enough beds – inspectors brand region’s mental health trust inadequate again

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The region’s mental health trust has once again been branded as failing as inspectors found serious issues first raised three years ago had not been fixed. Inspectors found patients at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) were unsafe and the service was inadequately led, as the

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EDP: Crowds gather in Norwich city centre to join March for Mental Health

Sabrina Johnson of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Hundreds of people of all ages gathered in Norwich city centre to add their voices to the call for better mental health services and to protest against cuts to the NHS One protester Hazel Van Der Lee, 43, of Great Yarmouth, who had her own experience of

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Video: BBC Look East leads with our March for Mental Health in Norwich

Jenny Kirk of the BBC reports:   The number of ‘unexpected deaths’ at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has more than doubled in just four years.

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 4: Andrew Hopkins, Finance Director then acting Chief Executive then Finance Director, NSFT

During the radical redesign, Andrew Hopkins was Finance Director of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), becoming acting Chief Executive after the resignation of Aidan Thomas in July 2013. While Andrew Hopkins ‘acted-up’, NSFT employed astonishingly expensive interim finance directors. NSFT wasted unbelievable sums, millions of pounds, on redundancy and early retirement payments in the midst

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 3: Maggie Wheeler, Chair, NSFT

Because of her then status in the Norwich Labour Party, and the frequent use of politically-correct buzzwords like ‘recovery’ and ‘ImROC’, many people trusted Maggie Wheeler and her Board when it promised ‘new services will be as effective as they are now, if not better’ as a result of the Trust Service Strategy (TSS) at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), better

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 2: Aidan Thomas, Chief Executive, NSFT

Aidan ‘I’m No Dirty Den’ Thomas was the Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) during the Trust Service Strategy (TSS) consultation process, better known as the ‘radical redesign’. The ‘radical redesign’ was condemned by the King’s Fund in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) and is widely regarded as an unmitigated disaster which resulted in

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 1: Hadrian Ball, Medical Director, NSFT

Hadrian Ball was the Medical Director and highest-paid member of the Board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) throughout the Trust Service Strategy (TSS), better known as the ‘radical redesign’. The ‘radical redesign’ was condemned by the King’s Fund in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) and is widely regarded as an unmitigated disaster which

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Revolving Doors: EDP: ‘It really is a disgrace’ – Norfolk community health bosses anger union with staff wage cuts

Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Norfolk Community Health and Care Trust (NCH&C) looks after thousands of patients a day through nurses and therapists visiting people in their homes, as well as in community hospitals, including Norwich Community Hospital on Bowthorpe Road. But it has angered Unison by increasing total board wages and

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EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health boss under fire over ‘unexpected deaths’

Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Chief executive of the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) Michael Scott was quizzed yesterday by Norfolk County councillors about why so many of the trust’s patients have died unexpectedly. But his answers failed to impress campaigners who accused him of failing to explain the deaths. Almost

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust to cut 90 posts

Nikki Fox and Nic Rigby of the BBC report: An NHS trust caring for mentally ill people in Norfolk and Suffolk which was placed in special measures by a care watchdog, is planning to cut 90 posts. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust wants to cut its deficit from £8.9m in 2015-16 to £6.1m in

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Sometimes ‘the noise’ is just too much: Speech for the minute’s silence outside Castle Mall on March for Mental Health

Jessica Goldfinch gave an incredibly powerful and moving speech before the minute’s silence outside Castle Mall in Norwich on our March for Mental Health. Many people were moved to tears, some of them the bereaved. Others couldn’t hear Jessica speak as well as they would have liked, given that six hundred people turned up on

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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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