John Harris recently spoke to the bereaved families in regards to what they call “the largest deaths crisis in the history of the NHS”. His opinion piece in The Guardian explains the carousel of management and the board, the lack of involvement with regulators and the poor leadership that is still to admit responsibility and […]
A couple of weeks ago Jim Mortram kindly let us take over his twitter feed for a week. The posts tell a story about our campaign so we thought we would collate them into one piece. See below: Monday Thanks to @JAMortram for inviting us, @NSFTcrisis, to take-over his tweets this week. We will tell
NSFTcrisis: Who we are and why we do what we do Read More »
How do we know when enough is enough and it’s time for radical and immediate action to be taken at NSFT? When reports hit the media about 140 doctors sending a joint letter to the Trust’s chair stating how unsafe things are and there is yet another Prevention of Future Deaths report (that cites falsifying
Campaigners meet with MPs to call for an independent statutory public inquiry into the deaths at NSFT On Tuesday 5th July 2022 some of our campaign members went to London to meet with our region’s MPs. Below are some of the key points we were making, Caroline Aldridge’s speech, and links to some of the
Call for Public Inquiry at NSFT Read More »
Following on from the CQC report which once again rated NSFT as ‘inadequate’, our campaign is calling for a statutory public inquiry. We think that there needs to be an investigation into how many people have died and why, and why NSFT have been allowed to be in special measures for so long without improvement.
Call for a public inquiry: Lobbying MPs Read More »
For bereaved families, the consequences of inadequate mental health services are with them forever. Over a thousand people (see figures below) have died since the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk was formed. Our campaigners want the scale of the loss in our community to be recognised and for those who
The CQC have been inspecting NSFT and some of our members were able to meet with the Inspection Manager to express their concerns. It was decided by the wider membership to follow up this meeting with a written request, in the form of an open letter, for urgent action. The concerns expressed in this letter
A call for urgent action: Open letter to CQC and NHSE & I about NSFT Read More »
(written with permission of Peggy Copeman’s family) The CCTV footage of Peggy Copeman being wheeled down the hospital corridor as she left Cygnet hospital can be viewed in this article https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/health/cctv-shows-peggy-copeman-ahead-of-transfer-8089988 Peggy is slumped in her wheelchair, her belongings in a bin liner. When Premier Rescue Ambulance Service staff asked about Peggy’s unresponsiveness a member
Peggy Copeman: A much loved Norfolk woman who died because of the beds crisis at NSFT Read More »
On 30th April 2021, we said goodbye to our friend and founder member of our campaign, Terry O’Shea. The funeral service was beautiful and a fitting farewell. Due to Covid restrictions, 30 people attended and the service was live-streamed and nearly 200 people viewed it. We already knew Terry could ‘pull a crowd’ because his
Tribute to Terry O’Shea – our friend and founder member Read More »
The Norfolk and Suffolk Mental Health Crisis campaign have been expressing concerns about the leadership at NSFT for years. Five years of being in special measures – two of these under the leadership team from ELFT (a.k.a. the A Team) who were drafted in to ‘urgently’ sort out the problems at NSFT. Instead of modelling
Here is the second PFD (Prevention of Future Death) report, in our series of 30 that have been issued by Coroners, relating to NSFT since 2012. We are publishing these one at a time to honour each person who has died. A Freedom of Information request means that we have NSFT’s PFDs and the trust’s
NSFT PFD – Report 2: Sebastian Davies 2012 Read More »
Our Campaign has analysed the Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports, issued by coroners, that relate to NSFT since the disastrous ‘radical redesign’ in 2012. A Freedom of Information request means that we have NSFT’s responses to the PFDs. We have been looking for the patterns and themes that characterise the issues at NSFT. The
NSFT PFD – Report 1: Matthew Dunham 2012 Read More »
He Died Waiting; Learning the lessons – a bereaved mother’s view of mental health services, by Caroline Aldridge, is a ‘must read’ book for anyone with an interest in mental health. Caroline’s book is unusual because she writes as a mother and as a professional with inside knowledge of mental health services. Campaign supporters (service-users, carers,
He Died Waiting: The story of Tim – who was one of hundreds of deaths at NSFT Read More »
Nikki Fox, Health Correspondent of the BBC, reports: A woman said she was “very angry” after her elderly mother caught Covid-19 following a move to a hospital hundreds of miles away. Kay Cantell said her mother Kathleen, 73, was transferred from Norfolk to Darlington in September. “I was very angry to think that she’s gone
BBC News: Covid-19: Patient gets virus after 240-mile hospital move Read More »
This week there are two identical twin Nonjobs of The Week (NOTW) as Band 7 Change Managers ‘working’ for the ‘delightful’ Mark Payne of Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Of course, there is no requirement for any experience or knowledge of mental health in the nonjob description from Norfolk and Waveney CCG. Why
NOTW: Mental Health Change Managers Band 7 x 2 Read More »
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) spent a staggering £6.9m transporting patients to Out of Area beds in 2019-20 because it doesn’t have enough of its own. That’s more than half a million pounds every month (page 16). NSFT had interest-bearing debts of £12.8 with Foundation Trust Financing Facility (FTFF) on 31st March 2020
Knowing me, knowing you, Aha: NSFT’s Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20 Read More »
Jessica Frank-Keyes, Local Democracy reporter of the Eastern Daily Press, writes: Paperwork errors at Norfolk’s mental health trust have risen by more than a third in the past year, it has emerged. The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has seen mistakes in sectioning – involuntary hospitalisation – paperwork increase by 36pc in the
EDP: ‘Unforgivable’ – Mental health trust allowed court hospital order to expire Read More »
In a Special Report for the Eastern Daily Press, Jessica Frank-Keyes writes: A generation of Norfolk’s children are at risk of being “failed” and “forgotten” as issues with already struggling support services are worsened by the impact of the coronavirus lockdown. Experts fear the scale of the “fallout from the Covid-19 crisis” for young people
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
Jessica Frank-Keyes of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The region’s mental health trust has been criticised for a “shocking” lack of beds as data revealed a fresh rise in patients being sent out of the area for treatment. Figures published by the region’s mental health trust – branded the worst in England – uncovered yet
EDP: Mental health trust blasted for ‘shocking’ fresh rise in out of area placements Read More »
Jessica Frank-Keyes of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The region’s mental health trust has been criticised for discussing in private a report into its staff culture of “bullying and lack of respect” – at a meeting meant to be open to the public. That says it all really, doesn’t it? Exclusion demonstrates the contempt of
Report reveals mental health trust ‘culture of bullying’ as public excluded from meeting Read More »
The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their “level of incompetence”: an employee is promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.
The Peter Principle Read More »
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) sent dishonest letters to hundreds of children and young people on waiting lists. NSFT claims that the dishonest discharge letters were a ‘mistake’ but refused to answer the BBC’s reasonable questions about what happened and what it is doing about put things right. We don’t even know what
This BBC Look East report by Health Correspondent Nikki Fox exposes abuse of the Covid-19 epidemic by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) as a shameful excuse to send dishonest discharge letters to more than 300 young people on waiting lists at NSFT’s Children, Families and Young People (CFYP) mental health services to cover-up
These shameful letters sent by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) abused the Covid-19 epidemic as an excuse to discharge 300+ children and young people from waiting lists at the Youth Service of Children, Families and Young People’s mental health services (CFYP) to cover-up an appalling Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection report, lack of
We’ve never read a Care Quality Commission(CQC) inspection report as bad as this. CQC finds that the management of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (NSFT) mental health services for Children, Families and Young People (CFYP) couldn’t run a bath. Toxic trust NSFT’s response was to shamefully abuse the Covid-19 epidemic as an excuse to
Last week, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a devastating report into the Youth service based at 80 St Stephen’s in Norwich, which is supposed to support young people in Norwich, North Norfolk and South Norfolk. It is the worst report we have ever read, even by the appallingly low standards of Norfolk & Suffolk
UPDATE 06/05/2020: Sadly, this was an April Fool. The quotes from former Professor Jonathan Warren and Marie Gabriel are genuine and accurate, taken from the Board and Governors minutes. Jonathan and Marie just never bothered to tell anyone that they weren’t going to do it any longer, hence the April Fool. The clique and commissioners
Press Release: Victory! NSFT to reintroduce Assertive Outreach with £1m investment Read More »
Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press explains: I have been writing about problems at our mental health service for this newspaper since 2012. In that time, I have sat through inquests of those let down by the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) and interviewed many grieving and angry families. I’ve also followed the
EDP: Opinion: Why we wanted to get hold of emails from NHS’ communications bosses Read More »
Emily Townsend of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: A 54-year-old man died after being hit by a lorry having only just left the West Suffolk Hospital site in Bury St Edmunds, an inquest heard. This is far from the first or only case of death or serious injury of an inpatient at Norfolk and
EADT: Man killed in A14 collision had just left mental health ward at NSFT Read More »
Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The son of a dementia patient who died after she was attacked in a care home says he feels “fobbed off” by a promised investigation into her death. The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) told the family of Doreen Livermore in January that it was
Sean O’Neill of The Times reports: The former Labour cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt must accept responsibility for the “foolish and misguided support” given to a paedophile campaign by a leading human rights group, the inquiry report said. Ms Hewitt and her former ministerial colleague Harriet Harman were senior figures in the National Council for Civil
The NHS Staff Survey 2019 was released this month. The Board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has claimed repeatedly that the mental health trust is ‘clinically-led’. The NHS Staff Survey 2019 results prove once and for all that the claim that NSFT is ‘clinically-led’ is a LIE. A clinically-led organisation would make
NHS Staff Survey 2019 exposes the lie that NSFT is ‘clinically-led’ Read More »
Help toxic and failed mental health trust, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), ‘get away with it (again)‘ for £43,000 per annum in this Band 7 nonjob as Digital Communications Manager. You’ll need ‘excellent knowledge and experience of using Twitter, Instagram and Facebook’ and be paid more than most nurses. In fact, you’ll be
The Thick of NSFT Comms: Digital Communications Manager, Band 7 AFC Read More »
In a Special Report, Emily Townsend of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: More NHS staff in Suffolk look forward to going to work – but rising numbers of workers are reporting being bullied, harassed or abused by managers. Thousands of health workers from across the region have had their say in the latest NHS
EADT: ‘Our NHS staff deserve better’, watchdog warns over poor survey results Read More »
Jessica Frank-Keyes of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Children and young people with mental health issues are waiting up to five months for treatment in parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. Adolescents with mental health conditions in Great Yarmouth and Waveney are facing waiting lists for mental health support ranging from a week to access urgent
EDP: Young people face five month waiting lists for mental health support Read More »
Emily Townsend of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: The mother of a 21-year-old fashion student who killed himself after being released from a mental health hospital is “astonished” that Suffolk’s mental health trust has been kept in ‘special measures’ for so long. Henry Curtis-Williams, from Ipswich, was found dead in London in 2016 – just
EADT: Mum of university student Henry fears more deaths at troubled mental health trust Read More »
Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: An NHS manager bragged that the service had “got away” with its failings being highlighted after the death of two dementia sufferers – because former Monty Python star Terry Jones had died. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) was criticised in an investigation into the death
EDP: ‘Got away with it’ – NHS manager gloated about coverage of dead great-grandmother Read More »
We’ve known the intended result of the inspection of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) since before Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspected the worst mental health trust in the country. We’ve heard rumours from many quarters that NSFT would be moved from ‘Inadequate’ to ‘Requires Improvement’ tomorrow for months, with the bureaucratic dinosaur known
A Stitch-up is not Safe: Improvement doesn’t look like this Read More »
Daniel Moxon and Clarissa Place of the Eastern Daily Press report: The family of an 81-year-old have told of their anger that she faced the indignity of dying on a roadside on the M11 – because she had been sent hundreds of miles from home for mental health treatment. Peggy Copeman passed away on Monday
EDP: 81-year-old gran should not have had to die on the roadside on M11 Read More »
Emily Townsend of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: Today marks a year since the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) was rated ‘inadequate’ for the third time in a row. The toleration of the underperformance of NSFT is a national scandal. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT)’s most recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report,
Emily Townsend reports: Patients in mental health crisis are still waiting more than four hours to be seen in an emergency – with the longest delays going beyond an entire day. More than one in four ’emergency referrals’ in Suffolk and Norfolk (26%), were not assessed within four hours in September, according to the trust.
EDP: Revealed: People waiting more than a DAY for emergency mental health treatment Read More »
Cuts in mental health beds have gone too far, leading to the “shameful practice” of patients being sent hundreds of miles from home to be treated, according to psychiatrists. The Royal College of Psychiatrists is calling for the NHS to urgently create hundreds of extra beds for people who are seriously mentally unwell in order to tackle
The Guardian: Hundreds of mental health beds needed to end ‘shameful’ out-of-area care Read More »
Today, we have written to Care Quality Commission (CQC) expressing our concerns about the inspection currently underway at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), echoing the views of many stakeholders. While we desperately want NSFT to improve, any improvement needs to be genuine rather predetermined for the convenience of the NHS bureaucracy. CQC cannot
Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: It is a year since inspectors slammed the region’s mental health service for making patients wait too long for help. This week they are back. Has anything changed? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Chloe Saunders needs help. The 17-year old has been trying to
EDP: ‘It destroys lives’ – Teen’s dismay at 18-month mental health delay Read More »
This is Stuart Richardson’s paper on the beds crisis and the transportation of people which he is presenting as Chief Operating Officer of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to the Board of NSFT tomorrow. Compare Richardson’s paper with the graph of NSFT’s actual performance below. The reasons for the meltdown of mental health
New Deputy COO joins our Trust **** Old TSSer rejoins our trust F***! Our new Deputy Chief Operating Officer has spoken of her excitement at returning to the Trust and playing a key role in supporting staff to ensure our new Care Groups are a success. Our new Deputy Chief Operating Officer has spoken of
Campaign Translation: New Deputy COO joins our Trust Read More »
Here is just some of the feedback we have received: Closing services, discharging SUs, cutting care, death rate rises. Recognise it? Radical redesign in case you’ve forgotten. Carers and SUs can’t ever forget or forgive That appointment is shocking, they don’t seem to be taking seriously the risk to life of these decisions, we are
Compare what the new deputy Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Amy Eagle, said in NSFT’s corporate videos for the first Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection with what her staff said in the Alexander Report interviews at the same time. We forced publication of the secret report a year
On 18th March 2024 the United Nations Disability Committee met in Geneva to hear the UK governments evidence as part of a follow-up to the special inquiry undertaken by the UN Committee for the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. The special inquiry report published in 2016 found the UK guilty of grave and
The UN Disability Committee raises NSFT Deaths with the UK Government Read More »
There was shock and anger after the ITV evening coverage was shown, with George Freeman explaining that the Trust should not be broken up and that the trust was bring run by World Class Leaders Many members were trying to question why and how he explained it in that way as there has been mentions
Concerns about MP George Freeman’s position of support after press interview Read More »
On 12 March 2024, campaign members have been at Portcullis House to meet with MP’s of Norfolk and Suffolk as well as Maria Caulfield, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health since October 2022, previously serving as Minister of State for Health between July and September 2022. This meeting was not only to give
Campaign Members Meet with Under-Secretary of State of Mental Health and MPs. Read More »
The parents of Ellie Woolnough feature in this Guardian article, talking of their daughter Ellie’s hope, how the trust were racing to discharge her and reluctant to give the correct care, concerns also shared by a local GP and campaigners. ‘It might have been different’: how Norfolk and Suffolk NHS foundation trust is failing mental
17 February 2024 The Campaign wrote to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and the other organisiations on the 11 December 2023 due to their continuous silence rather than holding Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to account, amidst more repeated failures and more public uncovering of the death crisis. The letter from the campaign:
Letter[s] to NHSE regarding the deaths crisis (and their NON reply..) Read More »
17 February 2024 The Campaign wrote to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and the other organisiations on the 11 December 2023 due to their continuous silence rather than holding Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to account, amidst more repeated failures and more public uncovering of the death crisis. The first letter was sent
Letter to CQC regarding the deaths crisis at NSFT (and their reply) Read More »
Mrs Maggie Harvey, 67, sadly died in her home whilst experiencing a mental health crisis. Mrs Harvey had moved from Suffolk to Norfolk, therefore moving from the Bury St Edmunds community mental health team in Suffolk and was reluctant to accept care from the Norwich team. The inquest uncovered her move caused miscommunication, confusion and
(Photo credit: from Ipswich Star, article – ‘NSFT criticised in inquest for Ipswich woman Ellen Woolnough’) During the last week of January 2024 and the first week of February 2024, there is an inquest underway, for Miss Woolnough who was a service user who died whilst under the care of NSFT. Miss Woolnough had suffered
Following the inquest into the death of 27-yr old Ellen ‘Ellie’ Woolnough Read More »
One of the country’s worst mental health trusts is in the news again yesterday after calls from bereaved families grow. There is a push continuing for a public inquiry into unexpected deaths, and pleas for change due to gaps in crisis care and impossible searches for help. Emma Woolfenden, the mother of Kai Mogg, 18,
Reports have been covered by ITV Anglia of the inquests into the deaths of family, Bartlomiej Kuczynski, 45, Kanticha Sukpengpanao, 36, Jasmin Kuczynska, 12, and Natasha Kuczynska, 8. Samantha Goward, the Norfolk area Coroner was holding back tears, reaching for tissues and visibly crying within the court. These deaths prompted the stalling of the RightCareRightPerson
Inquest of family in Costessey causes coroner upset in court Read More »
Rebecca McLellan, 24, struggled to receive the care she needed at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust amid ‘the biggest deaths crisis’ in NHS history. The article by Mario Ledwith writes that ‘on the last occasion Rebecca McLellan’s close relatives saw her alive, they were struck by just how well she was — engaging, laughing
NHS trust ‘abandoned’ budding paramedic who took her own life Read More »
David Hannant once again reports on the lack of communication from Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, after suggestions that the man involved in this local family tragedy not only faced mental health issues but was potentially in contact with mental health services. The Norfolk Constabulary has already reported themselves to the police watchdog after failing
Another worrying silence from NSFT about tragic Costessey incident Read More »
On 30th August 2023, an investigation into the NSFT mortality review by Nikki Fox and BBC Newsnight aired on BBC. You can find the BBC iplayer link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001q1s7/newsnight-brexit-border-checks-delayed-again Nikki Fox also spoke on radio 4’s Today programme : starting at 00:41:18 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001q0r5 Nikki Fox revealed on Newsnight that Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s
The recent appalling revelations in the Mortality Review at the Norfolk andSuffolk Foundation Trust, our local mental health “provider”, have shocked this campaign to its core. To see the stark headlines of 8,000 unexpected deaths in a period of less than three and a half years was truly distressing. As a Campaign we have raised the rising
Statement on the Mortality Review Read More »
To mark World Mental Health Day our campaign is organising two marches for mental health. The marches will demand decent and high-quality services in both counties. If you care about mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk and you want to highlight to those in power that something urgently needs to be done to improve things,
Marches for Mental Health; 8th & 9th October Read More »
Following our meeting with MPs and the Minister for Mental Health (Gillian Keegan) we are keeping up the pressure for action at NSFT. Politicians are focussed on a leadership contest and we need them focussed on mental health failings in our counties. In the last two weeks we have come across more tragic deaths that
Too Many Deaths: Public Inquiry Now! Read More »
