EDP: Letter: Shocking Figures Reveal Impact of cuts on Mental Health Services

The EDP printed this letter from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk on Saturday 18th June 2016: Dear Editor So, the Independent Inquiry into the deaths of patients under the care of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has concluded that the number of these deaths is no worse […]

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An NSFT Mother and Carer responds to the tragic death of Henry Curtis-Williams

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

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Fiscal Fantasy Island: NSFT spends over half its Out Of Trust Acute (OOA) Beds budget in first two months of the year

The number of out of trust acute (OOA) bed days has nearly doubled: from 332 days in April 2016 to 647 days in May 2016. Most of these patients are being sent to the expensive, remote and private Mundesley Hospital, where it seems that none of the medical staff have passed the exams of the Royal

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RSA Norwich: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

Terry Skyrme reflects on the recent RSA mental health event in Norwich: “Campaign supporters held a protest outside an event organized by the RSA at St Michael’s church in Norwich. Speakers at the event represented the “Third sector” and other mainstream services such as Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), the main provider of

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The Norwich Radical: The Elephant in the Room: Norfolk’s Mental Health Crisis

Hannah Rose reports in The Norwich Radical from the recent RSA event: Instead, I was perturbed by the oddly formal sense of occasion — cheese and wine were offered on arrival — and I was given instructions to mingle. I had the distinct feeling that I was definitely at the wrong meeting. Only around fifty chairs

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Help: Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspecting NSFT in July 2016

CQC, the independent regulator of health, mental health and adult social care in England will be inspecting Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust the week beginning the 11th July.  They would like to hear feedback about mental health services before the inspection. There are a number of ways people can feedback their views (CQC are

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Protest: RSA: “Throwing money we don’t have at a problem that just won’t go away is not the answer.”

Tomorrow evening, on Tuesday 7th June 2016, we will be protesting at the failure to invite service users, carers and professionals to an event the purpose of which is said to be finding ‘affordable, innovative new solutions’ to mental health. We will be assembling outside St Michael at Plea in Norwich from 5.45 p.m. A

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Invitation: 6th June 2016: Meeting with NSFT about unexpected deaths at 6 p.m. today at Hellesdon Hospital

We’re meeting the Director of Nursing, Jane Sayer, and the Medical Director, Bohdan Solomka, of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to discuss the extremely disappointing report into the alarming increase in unexpected deaths at NSFT to a record number. Worse still, the number of unexpected deaths continues to rise but NSFT remains complacent: there

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Complaint letter: “Don’t campaign to save… campaign for a radically different new service… with entirely new management”

A service user of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) writes: “I am a user of this service for more than fifteen years. In the last four years the service as become unacceptably poor. I have plenty of evidence. Although I agree that services have to be defended in as much as good levels

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BBC News: Norfolk & Suffolk trust records its highest number of unexpected mental health deaths

The BBC reports: An NHS mental health service, which was the first in England to be placed in special measures, has recorded its highest number of unexpected deaths. Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) recorded 157 deaths in 2014-15, compared to 88 deaths in 2012-13. Verita, which the trust instructed to carry out the investigation,

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Kept in the Dark: Should we expect the ‘independent inquiry’ into unexpected deaths at NSFT to be a whitewash?

The ‘independent inquiry’ into unexpected deaths at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is being published on Thursday, 26th May 2016 at the NSFT board meeting at Hellesdon Hospital, Norwich. The board meeting starts at 0930. Why not join us? So, should we expect a whitewash? Well, sadly, given our previous experience of being

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Gallery: March for Mental Health, York

Today, members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk joined local people from York to protest against the closure of Bootham Park Hospital with only five days notice. Imagine the chaos if Hellesdon Hospital was closed in less than a week. Local campaigners in York believe that Jeremy Hunt’s plan

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EDP: Revealed: The six figure payouts for staff leaving the Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust

David Powles of the Eastern Daily Press and Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times report: Two consultants involved in a “strategic reorganisation” which saw hundreds of jobs axed at the region’s mental health trust, each received payouts worth more than £200,000. Day five of our five-part series into public sector pay can reveal

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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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EDP: The best April Fool’s Day posts we’ve spotted in Norfolk, Suffolk and Fenland

Courtney Pochin of the EDP reports: Salary cuts The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk released a statement today, which said that the Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) was going to “voluntarily reduce his salary by £35,000”. If only the greed of Michael Scott and the

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Well done, Mr. Scott: Campaign statement on the salary of the Chief Executive of NSFT

Strictly embargoed: Not for publication or broadcast prior to 0000 BST on 01/04/2016: A spokesperson for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said: “When we heard the rumours that the Chief Executive of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Michael Scott, was going to voluntarily reduce his salary by £35,000,

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