EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk’s troubled mental health trust is not improving quickly enough

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 and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT).

The comments are made by Dr Paul Lelliott, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals (lead for mental health) about the trust which was put into special measures in February.

In his letter, sent to North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb, Dr Lelliott said: “Our impression is the trust has not improved as quickly as we would have liked.

“We have engaged with Monitor (the Government’s health regulator) and the trust in discussions about the pace of change and how we would expect to see more progress at a quicker pace.”

Emma Corlett said: “Absolutely nothing has been done to address the fact that the trust is massively under-resourced.”

A spokesman for Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said: “If the CQC indicates that the NHS bureaucracy is finally developing a sense of urgency about the crisis in mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk, we welcome it.

“This crisis has gone on for far too long.”

NSFT cannot cut a further £36m from its budget, on top of previous cuts of £44m, and improve services condemned last year by the CQC as Inadequate. NSFT’s Board, NHS England, Monitor, the CCGs, the CQC, the Department of Health and the Care Minister, Alistair Burt, all need to take full responsibility for the rapid delivery of adequate funding and improved services rather than hiding or blaming each other.

 

Click on the image below to read the full story on the EDP website:


EDP Norfolk and Suffolk’s troubled mental health trust is not improving quickly enough

7 thoughts on “EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk’s troubled mental health trust is not improving quickly enough”

  1. If Tesco’s or any other commercial company had to cut 20% of its costs, it would close stores etc. It would NOT expect or be expected to provide the SAME level of service….with 20% less income, but apparently this does not apply  in  the NHS…What hasn’t been made clear is that NSFT had been trying to save money for years before these devastating cuts. Families and sufferers don’t want to hear about this, they want a service, a service that does meet their needs. Well, its not happening, and isn’t going to. But the CCG’s, some  MP’s and the government all don’t seem to get this….Leaving the poor service users, their families and the staff to pick up the pieces. Its a national disgrace.

  2. Just in the last week two themes emerge from service-user accounts: people with a diagnosis of severe mental illness who have not been “acutely unwell” for a period are being discharged from mental health services by over-loaded care coordinators. Many service-users tell us that it is the regular contact with a qualified mental health nurse who knows them well that actually keeps people well and nips a crisis in the bud. The second theme is the difficulty in getting help once someone starts to deteriorate. It seems that things have to get really bad before anyone responds. This is a sign of a service which is underfunded and overloaded.

  3. I think people need to wake up and smell the coffee here, there cannot be improvements to the service since they won’t pay for a decent service – so one won’t be forthcoming.

    This CQC-Monitor-NSFT merry go round is simply a diversionary tactic to make it look like something is actually being done. NSFT has a quality improvement programme, a this programme and a that programme, what it does not have is enough staff or enough beds.

    Not that long from now, maybe next year, maybe the year after the dog and pony show will be over. Mr Hunt will begin his wholesale deconstruction of the NHS and trusts like NSFT will simply be broken up and replaced with something cheaper, the model of care NSFT is attempting to deliver is now not deliverable and hasn’t been for some time.

    It is about time people realised these facts – the campaign needs to focus on far more fundamental issues, like getting rid of the neoliberal dystopia that the Tory regime represents.

     

  4. Probably not a coincidence that the only people to benefit from RR are The Priory and other associated private enterprises like private ambulances.  A member of the board visited a few weeks ago, and claimed that Radical Redesign was, they believed,  a ‘good idea’, and ‘overall a success’.  The level of self delusion,  even for people sitting in their  Ivory Tower is breath taking. I’d like to see every family, loved one and service user to write to these board members……but they’d probably say its a minority, and an orchestrated attempt to derail the trust.  However, I do agree, the NHS will be broken up, piecemeal in a few short years, encouraging further ‘private enterprise’.

  5. I have a question that has been bothering me for some time. Under article eight of the Human Rights Act it speaks of ‘The Right To  A Family Life’.  BUT if you are transported a couple of hundred miles from home, to the nearest available bed, (under the mental health act),  your right to a family life is severely restricted due to the problems of loved ones visiting you.  How does the Trust square the law with the purchase of out of area beds, whilst knowing that relatives have little to no chance to visit.???

  6. That is a very valid point, it needs one of the advocacy agencies to support a service user to seek restitution in the courts. This would be a massive undertaking however with the justice system stacked against the poor and disadvantaged.

    You can bet one thing, if someone did manage to walk away with a decent settlement, things would change pretty quickly as a precedent would have been set. Sadly the advocacy agencies are buckling under the load in the same way as the rest of the service so don’t hold your breath for action here.

  7. Many other Human Rights are infringed by our current system of treatment of people who are acutely mentally ill. People should not be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which is what some patients have experienced by being transported across the country to an unknown hospital in a caged vehicule. Also the right to life has been denied to those people who have committed suicide when denied prompt and appropriate treatment for their mental illness.

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