BBC: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust funding concerns

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 pledge from the government about parity of esteem between physical and mental health but that needs to be translated into a fundamental change in the way mental health services are funded… At the moment, we continue to believe the care we are providing is safe and effective but we can’t continue to provide that level of service (under present funding arrangements).”

Finally, Gary Page, Chair of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), acknowledges that the present crisis situation is untenable.

Norman Lamb’s cashless concordat, toothless taskforces, empty promises and meaningless media appearances do nothing to address the mental health crisis in his own backyard. It doesn’t matter what the funding formula is: what matters is that the end result is sufficient money to provide decent mental health services. Kathy Chapman’s ‘radical redesign’, which promised ‘enhanced services’ from slashed budgets, lies in the ruins of hubris.

The King’s Fund reports that real terms funding for mental health services has fallen while demand has risen but Norman Lamb witters on about ‘parity of esteem’ and pretends to be a champion of the mentally ill or in opposition to his own government. Norman Lamb is the Minister of State at the Department of Health directly responsible for mental health in the Government which created, at enormous expense, NHS England and the CCGs.

Click on the image below to read the full report on the BBC website:

BBC Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust funding concerns

 

2 thoughts on “BBC: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust funding concerns”

  1. At last…How long has it taken the board to listen……and how much money has been simply wasted in the last two years.  Now we just have to get to next April, and in the meantime more cost cutting…..and then see exactly what NHS England is going to do….having let the situation carry on for so long. Yes, its a significant step in the right direction, but it changes little on the ground, and there’s a long way to go before we see any improvements.

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