Kept in the Dark: BBC exclusively reports that Norman Lamb’s own acute trust abandons his mutuality Pathfinder programme

In an email to Unison, leaked to the BBC, the hospital’s head of communications Fiona Devine said: “Our particular interest in the project was to learn from others about their experience of enhanced staff engagement and the potential result in benefits for patients.

“Since then, we have received further information about the project… in light of that we are withdrawing from the mutuals project so that we can instead progress our own comprehensive staff engagement programme.”

There were originally going to be ten ‘Pathfinders’ in Norman Lamb’s mutuality experiment. Nine were approved. Now there are eight as the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUH) rejects the mutuality process before it even starts. It will be fascinating to discover why NNUH rejected the programme but it is a significant victory for Keep Our NHS Public.

How long before the Board of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) sees sense and concentrates on delivering high quality mental health care rather than evaluating new non-NHS structures with a City of London law firm?

A DoH spokesperson said the NNUH decision was “a shame” but the programme “will continue unaffected”.

In your dreams, Norman.

It is time for NSFT to reject the push by Norman Lamb and the two former investment bankers on the NSFT Board for mutuality and save the taxpayer £100,000 in management consultancy fees. Let’s see the number of trusts in Norman Lamb’s dead end experiment reduced to seven.

Click on the image below to read Nikki Fox’s scoop on the BBC website: