Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: The number of Norfolk and Suffolk mental health patient deaths has gone up from four to six a month between 2013 and 2015, it has been revealed. The 50% increase in the average number of deaths, excluding deaths by natural causes or those drug-related, goes before a trust meeting […]
BBC News: Concern at rise in mental health patient deaths Read More »
The premature discharge of patients and closure of Waveney Acute Services at Carlton Court, breaking the promise made by commissioners and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), was driven by the desire to save money in the Cost Improvement Programme (CIP is an NHS euphemism for cuts), not patient care, as this internal NSFT
In NSFT’s words: Cuts not patient care drove early closure of Carlton Court beds Read More »
David Powles of the EDP exclusively reports: Campaigners fear even more adult mental health patients will have to be sent outside of the region, after it was confirmed a unit to treat them in had been closed down. Yesterday, health bosses confirmed the remaining two patients had been transferred to the nearby Northgate Hospital in
EDP: Anger as Suffolk adult mental health unit closes Read More »
Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care Mary Docherty and Graham Thornicroft International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2015 9:34 DOI: 10.1186/s13033-015-0023-9 © Docherty and Thornicroft. 2015 Abstract Background Since the economic recession began in 2008 anecdotal reports suggest that mental health services in England have experienced disinvestment, but published data to test
Lauren Cope of the EDP reports: A campaign to secure the long-term future of a women’s mental health unit, which last year battled closure, has been relaunched. Now, uncertainty over whether the CCGs will supply the four beds for another year means the Save Ashcroft campaign group has organised a second public meeting to bring
EDP: Campaign to secure Wicklewood mental health unit’s long-term future is relaunched Read More »
Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found staff at Beach Ward, in Hammerton Court, Julian Hospital, Bowthorpe Road, Norwich, had carried out incomplete record-keeping, incomplete risk-assessments, and that there was a “poor compliance with mental capacity assessments.” Beach Ward, run by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT),
EDP: Eight areas of concern found at one ward in Norfolk hospital Read More »
Before the NHS mental health trusts in Norfolk and Suffolk merged, each had a medical director: After the ‘cost saving’ merger, the new medical management looked like this: The new structure looks like this: The cost of medical management has risen by nearly 50 per cent. NSFT’s income has fallen, mental health services have been
New Ways of Shirking: A Tale of Two Deputies Read More »
The Daily Mail has now picked up on the Press Association report of a national scandal. Click on the image below to read the story on the Daily Mail website:
Daily Mail: No mental health beds available in England, trust chief was told Read More »
Nikki Fox of the BBC reports on the meltdown in mental health services: An NHS trust was told there were no mental health beds available across England, its medical director has said. Dr Bohdan Solomka told the BBC on Sunday the lack of beds applied across the NHS and among private providers. This weekend, Norfolk
BBC News: NHS ‘had no mental health beds left’ Read More »
Nicholas Carding of the EDP reports: The region’s underfire mental health trust is not improving as quickly as hoped, according to a health watchdog’s leader for mental health. A letter seen by the EDP and Evening News, says the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are expecting to see “more progress at a quicker pace” from Norfolk
EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk’s troubled mental health trust is not improving quickly enough Read More »
More high quality reporting from David Powles into the treatment, or lack of treatment, of Kieran Fulcher on the front page of the EDP. Why does the press have to do the job of our politicians and NHS bureaucracy, just as it had to at Mid Staffs? The upper echelons of the NHS behave as
EDP: Heartbroken family say Norfolk teenager received poor mental health care Read More »
4,447 patients sent out of their area for treatment in 2014-15 – up 23.1% from 2013-14 “I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t have a clue. I knew I was a long, long way from home as it had taken so long to get there but I didn’t know where in the country I
BBC News: Mental health patients sent ‘hundreds of miles’ for care Read More »
A damning report’s highlighted the challenges facing NHS staff looking after some of Norfolk’s most vulnerable patients. Unmanageable workloads, intolerable pressure and insufficient resources are just some of the issues raised in interviews with staff at the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust. They argue a 40 million pound savings programme has decimated the service –
Mental health patients in Norfolk and Suffolk are increasingly being sent to beds across the country – despite pledges to reduce the practice. Sending patients out of area has cost the trust £530,000 so far this year. Out-of-area placements saw an increase in bed days from 381 in April to 713 in May – a
Having wasted £17.25 million of taxpayers’ money getting rid of staff it needed, Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) spent nearly £2.5 million on temporary staff in May alone. This is a new record, even for NSFT. 68 per cent of this expenditure was on expensive agency staff and the reliance on temporary staff
UNISON issues stark warning over further £36 million cuts to mental health services UNISON has reacted angrily to news today that the proposed financial recovery plan for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust includes a further £36 million of cuts. The Trust, which provides mental health services across Norfolk and Suffolk, has already made £44
UNISON: Stark warning over further £36 million cuts to mental health services Read More »
Nick Triggle of the BBC reports: People who need urgent mental health care in England are receiving inadequate support, regulators say. The Care Quality Commission reviewed the help given to people in mental health crisis, which includes people who are suicidal, having serious panic attacks or psychotic episodes. The regulator said the system was “struggling
BBC News: Mental health crisis care ‘inadequate’ Read More »
‘Unprecedented failings’: ‘Firefighting to Keep Patients Alive’ An exclusive investigation of the crisis in mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk on the national News at Six and Ten on BBC1 and the BBC News channel. Isn’t it shameful that the Board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), led by a Chief Executive
Video: BBC News Exclusive Investigation – ‘Firefighting to keep patients alive’ Read More »
From: NSFT Communications Subject: BBC broadcast on Trust being placed into special measures Dear colleagues, The BBC One 6 O’Clock News is scheduled to be broadcasting a story this evening (Tuesday, 2 June) about our Trust being placed into ‘special measures’ by the regulator, Monitor, following the inspection of our services by the Care Quality Commission
Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Chair, Gary Page, blames NHS England. NSFT Director of Nursing, Jane Sayer, blames ‘trends’. NSFT Chief Executive, Michael Scott, blames NHS England. The NSFT Board again tries to portray itself yet again as victim not villain but forgets to mention that the NSFT Board was happy to take
