EDP: Norfolk’s Admiral Nurse two-year pilot to help people with dementia coming to an end

The Admiral Nurse pilot scheme has been one of the few bright spots in Norman Lamb’s Bleak Midwinter of mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Here’s is a comment made on our website back in July 2014:

Yes folks he’s at it again.  Whilst apparently not having remembered any of the press releases by himself over the last 12 -18 months, Norman Lamb ‘strongly supports the increase’ in the pilot scheme of Breckland’s Admiral Nurses for Dementia Care across Norfolk. NSFT had paid the ’£50,000 for two, and another 12 would be needed to cover the rest of the county’.  The successful pilot scheme is due to run out next year.  YES, that’s great Norman, but with the NSFT facing more cuts of £40 million over the next 5 years on top of all the RADICAL REDESIGN he has unfortunately forgotten to say one thing.  How its going to be funded?  It saves the NHS AND Social Services some money but the latter has paid nothing towards the scheme, and it is unlikely they will as its a Health matter.  So, any initial outlay will have to be funded by further NSFT savings, OR Norman actually finding some money.  This is the only time he is silent on anything.? What is the point in telling people something they want to hear but failing to tell them HOW or even vaguely WHEN it will happen.  Naïve maybe…..but Norman needs a swift reality check….we have had enough of platitudes. His electorate deserve better.

Now the funding is running out and the disastrous Health & Social Care Act quangocracy created by Norman Lamb’s government means that the Kafkaesque bureaucracy has no sense of urgency and is happy to argue with itself about from which ever-diminishing pot of money any future funding should come while having another cup of coffee and choosing between Custard Cream and Chocolate Bourbon biscuits.

While Norman Lamb talks about integration, all we see is disintegration. We can’t even get mental health onto the agenda of South Norfolk CCG which is apparently the lead commissioner of mental health services in Norfolk.

Now, it appears uncertain whether Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) will continue to fund two of the three nurses in the pilot, which isn’t entirely surprising given the vicious cuts to which it has been subject and the massive further cuts to come.

A nameless, unaccountable Kafkaesque South Norfolk CCG bureaucrat with no sense of urgency said:

“The CCG, together with other partners are working to redesign support services for people with dementia and their carers. This is very much in its early stages.”

The last thing we need is a ‘redesign.’ Please, never again.

On 18th July 2014, Norman Lamb told the Norwich Evening News:

“This is exactly the sort of preventative care I want to see. The results of this brilliant work appears to be better care for patients and enable people to remain independent with support for longer, but crucially ease pressure on the health and care system. I strongly support extending this approach to the whole county and make it mainstream.”

Norman Lamb, as always, got charitable sector publicity, this time Dementia UK, to present him as a mental health champion: charities can’t criticise the government due to political neutrality rules and because they want funding. Yet what is happening six months later? Absolutely nothing, except that rather than being extended, this ‘brilliant work’ is being cut. Absolutely typical Norman ‘mental health champion’ Lamb. Worthy soundbites, duplicitous cuts and bureaucratic inaction. Norman Lamb says one thing but does the opposite. Norman Lamb is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

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

EDP Norfolks Admiral Nurse two-year pilot to help people with dementia coming to an end

2 thoughts on “EDP: Norfolk’s Admiral Nurse two-year pilot to help people with dementia coming to an end”

  1. Yes, just like Lamb and Clegg’s vision for mental health, their Crisis Care Concordat, Childrens Taskforce etc. It’s like someone saying, when the house is burning down, ” I’ve got some good ideas, but no, I haven’t got any water. “

  2. …..Another service like so many good ones which have already been axed. Has Norman Lamb anything to say…………hmmm guess not. Not even something on ‘parity of esteem’ perhaps.??

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