Today, officials meet at NHS Improvement (NHSI) to decide whether Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation should be released from Special Measures. Usually, when a health trust is put into Special Measures, money follows from commissioners to help put things right. This has not happened at NSFT. In fact, it has been difficult to get NHS […]
Vikram Dodd in the Guardian reports: Police say they are being relied on as an emergency mental health service and that cuts in psychiatric provision are probably to blame, the Guardian has learned. Officers point to an increase of more than 50% in a decade in the use of powers to detain people under section
Guardian: Police says its forces are becoming emergency mental health services Read More »
No wonder the Eastern Daily Press has been shortlisted for a mental health journalism award. Andrew Papworth reports: A teenage mental health patient sent to hospital 206 miles away from home while recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a violent assault has said: “We must campaign for local hospitals.” Sarah Barrett was 16 and studying
UPDATE: For campaigners travelling by train from Norwich, why not join us on the 1200 train to Ipswich? Meet outside the Norwich train station ticket office at 1145. Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has seen the number of unexpected deaths of people in its care more than double from around seven per month
Nicholas Carding of the Norwich Evening News reports on the closure of yet another 24 beds for the elderly on the Julian Hospital site: A 24-bed ward which helps a hospital discharge patients faster will close in three weeks – less than two years after opening. So much for stopping bed blocking. The Henderson Unit,
Evening News: Anger over decision to close ‘excellent’ 24-bed ward in Norwich Read More »
When the Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) appeared before the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) of Norfolk County Council, he barely deployed a number, percentage or fact. Instead, Michael Scott gave a very long list of excuses, including: “I’m not going to get into a numbers game” “most people
Jason Beattie of the Mirror reports: Jeremy Hunt has failed to meet his pledge to increase funding on mental health, figures show today. Freedom of Information requests reveal the amount of money spent on mental health could be cut for the third year in a row. More than half of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) –
Mirror: Jeremy Hunt breaks his pledge to raise spending on mental health Read More »
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has published its papers for the Board of Directors meeting on Thursday 22nd September 2016. The papers contain the Quality Report for the NSFT Board prepared by Michelle Allott, Deputy Director of Nursing at NSFT. The report states: Overall, the number of SIs over the past two years
Deaths Crisis: Unexpected deaths denial continues at NSFT Read More »
The inquest into the ‘unexpected death’ of Daniel Chapman under the care of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) started on Monday 19th September before the Suffolk coroner, Peter Dean, at Bury St Edmunds. The family is represented by Claire Mawer at 15 New Bridge Street and INQUEST Lawyer’s Group member Harriet Wistrich of Birnberg
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
EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health boss under fire over ‘unexpected deaths’ Read More »
Penny, a Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) carer, spoke on behalf of our campaign at the Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) of Norfolk County Council today: Thank you for the opportunity of addressing you on behalf of the Campaign about issues arising from the Verita report. I am the nearest relative
We have provided evidence to the Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (NHOSC) and hope that a carer and distinguished member of our campaign will be given the opportunity to speak. NSFT unexpected deaths is the first item on the agenda. Details of the meeting are here. A location map is at the bottom of
Caroline Kingdon of the BBC reports: A charity in Norwich that helps the homeless says they’ve seen an increase in the number of rough sleepers in the city over the last few years. The St Martins Housing Trust, which runs the 30-bed Bishopbridge House hostel, says this year they’ve seen about 200 people come through their doors,
BBC News: Increasing numbers of rough sleepers in city Read More »
Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Spending on wages for senior health bosses in Norfolk and Waveney has risen by nearly 15pc in the last three years – despite demands for millions of pounds to be saved locally. Wages for senior members at the five Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) rose
In an excellent letter to the Eastern Daily Press, Brian Watkins, Liberal Democrat county councillor for the Eaton Division of Norfolk County Council writes: It is deeply disturbing to learn that there has been a big increase in the number of patients under the care of the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust who have died unexpectedly. Despite repeated reassurances that the situation would be
EDP: Letter: Reasons for rise in unexpected deaths need to be established Read More »
In 2012-13, 7.3 patients of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) died unexpectedly each month. Each and every year since, the number of patients of NSFT dying unexpectedly has increased significantly. Our campaign was founded in 2013 by staff concerned about unnecessary deaths as a result of the cuts and chaos of the radical
EDP: Graphic – The large rise in the number of patients dying unexpectedly at the NSFT Read More »
Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Staffing levels at mental health wards are under the spotlight today after figures revealed a reduction of permanently employed nurses filling shifts. Figures show the trust’s fill-rate of nurses employed by NSFT is fluctuating between 80pc-90pc, meaning managers have to use extra funds to bring in temporary
EDP: Mental health trust struggling to fill nursing shifts on region’s inpatient wards Read More »
Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: There has been a “significant increase” in the number of Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust mental health patients sent out of its area in May, a report to its board has found. Click on the image below to read the article in full on the BBC website:
BBC News: ‘Significant increase’ in mental health patients being sent out of area Read More »
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
An NSFT Mother and Carer responds to the tragic death of Henry Curtis-Williams Read More »
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
