Before the NHS mental health trusts in Norfolk and Suffolk merged, each had a medical director:
After the ‘cost saving’ merger, the new medical management looked like this:
The new structure looks like this:
The cost of medical management has risen by nearly 50 per cent.
NSFT’s income has fallen, mental health services have been slashed, beds have been closed, front line staff have lost their jobs and seen their pay fall, the Care Quality Commission has rated NSFT ‘Inadequate’, Monitor has placed NSFT into Special Measures and the NSFT Board has promised Monitor another £36 million of dangerous cuts to safeguard their own jobs.
A decent CAMHS service, Assertive Outreach, the Homeless team, Link workers, Carlton Court and adequately-staffed community teams were all apparently unaffordable.
Yet NSFT always seems to find the money to grow its bloated management structure and give pay rises to those at the top.
The Radio 4 programme below is really worth listening to, particularly the section about the 9,500 community nurses working without managers at Buurtzorg in the Netherlands which starts just after nine minutes.
Click on the image to visit the BBC website to listen to the documentary on iPlayer:
