Kept in the Dark: NHS England doesn’t even keep to its own deadlines

NHS England wrote to us a couple of weeks ago: I am sorry that the response to your internal review request is taking longer to complete than our standard and the understandable frustration this may be causing you. Further to your initial Internal Review request, the panel convened on 8 April 2015 and we hope […]

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Newsflash: File on 4: Minding the Gap: Mental healthcare on BBC Radio 4 at 8 p.m. on 19th May 2015

We’re working hard to bring the crisis in mental health services at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to national attention. The crisis isn’t over. The CCGs and NSFT promised there would be no out of area placements beyond April 2014. That promise broken, there is now a dangerous Waiting List of Shame to

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BBC News: Mental health spending cuts forecast

This BBC story was based upon our investigation of regulatory filings with Monitor and over one hundred Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted by our campaign. These planned cuts were brought to the attention of over five million viewers of the BBC News at Six. The Health Correspondent of the BBC, Sophie Hutchinson, reports: Mental

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Guardian: ‘System failure’ of NHS mental health services puts pressure on A&E wards

Haroon Siddique of the Guardian reports: Large numbers of people with mental health issues are ending up in A&E wards because of “system failure”, according to leaked minutes of a government-attended steering group. The meeting heard that people with mental illness are presenting themselves at emergency wards because of inadequate provision for them in the

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Campaign research shows mental health trusts nationwide face impossible 8% cut in budgets

Research by the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk & Suffolk, using a combination of the latest regulatory filings with Monitor and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, shows that NHS mental health trusts face a real terms cut in their income of eight per cent in real terms over the next four years.

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Kept in the Dark: NHS England believes gossip and secrecy more important than public safety and transparency

We originally wrote to NHS England in September 2014 – more than seven months ago. Firstly, we wanted to discover what the chief architect of the radical redesign and Operations Director (Norfolk) of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) was doing after Michael Scott emailed staff announcing her promotion to work for Geraldine Strathdee,

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Campaign’s evidence to Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) of Norfolk County Council on 16th April 2015

On 16th April, the Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee of Norfolk County Council held a meeting to review the disastrous ‘radical redesign‘ at Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). The Chief Executive of NSFT, Michael Scott, was accompanied by the Operations Director (Norfolk), Debbie White, and the Locality Operations Manager in West Norfolk, Marcus Hayward.

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Mirror: Another Tory government will lead to a mental health services crisis, warn top health staff

Jason Beattie of the Daily Mirror reports: In a letter to the Daily Mirror more than 100 mental health workers say the Coalition have conducted a “sustained and vicious” attack on frontline services. “We believe that this has put any member of the public with mental health needs at serious risk. “We cannot continue to

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BBC News: Increased use puts pressure on Norfolk and Waveney mental health trust

Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A 38% increase in mental health patients referred to an NHS Trust has hit waiting times, a report has found. The increase in the Norfolk and Waveney area in the December 2014 to February 2015 period – compared with April to June 2014 – resulted in higher staff caseload

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EDP: Norfolk children’s services boss reveals ‘scandal’ over mental health beds for young people

More important campaigning journalism from our local newspaper, the EDP: Norfolk’s children’s services boss has revealed a lack of available mental health beds for youngsters meant she had to create a makeshift unit in a children’s home, so a 17-year-old could get desperately needed care. And Sheila Lock said a 13-year-old spent a weekend in

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The Guardian: Norman Lamb accuses mental health campaigners of trolling him

The Liberal Democrat care minister, Norman Lamb, has accused mental health campaigners in his North Norfolk constituency of trolling him on Twitter. Lamb, who promotes himself as a champion for mental health awareness, was responding to tweets from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk & Suffolk which called him duplicitous and said

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Pay of Chief Executive of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) increased by a quarter in the midst of mental health crisis

The average salary of staff at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) fell by £4,796 (18%) in just three years from £26,557 to £21,761 between 2011 and 2014. Mental health services were trashed as part of the failed ‘radical redesign’ which resulted in NSFT being rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Monitor

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Mind the Gap: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental health election panel

We’ve just receives this shocking press release from Mick Hardy, prospective parliamentary candidate in Norwich North for the Dandy Party and a founder member of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental

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EDP: Health minister ‘immensely disappointed’ as Norwich hospital ditches staff-ownership plans

Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: Mr Lamb, MP for North Norfolk and care minister, suggested the [Norfolk & Norwich] hospital dropped its interest in becoming a mutual because it was under investigation by regulator Monitor for persistently missing waiting time targets. “It is immensely disappointing,” Mr Lamb said. “I obviously understand that they are

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Sunday Telegraph: Mental health in the NHS: ‘My son wanted to die; we begged for help but there was none’

When Linda Jones received a call from her distraught husband, one cold day in December 2008, to say that their beloved 17-year-old son, Matthew, had committed suicide in his bedroom, she was inconsolable, as any mother would be. But she was not surprised. The despair the Joneses feel at the state of Britain’s mental-health services

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Kept in the Dark: Saturday 7th February at 10.30 a.m. – Campaign talking about NSFT ‘mutualisation’ at the Curve, the Forum, Norwich NR2 1TF

We will be speaking alongside Professor Sue Richards, National Co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public and retired surgeon Anna Atthow. Please join us. Norfolk Keep our NHS Public Public Meeting 7th Feb @10.30am in the Curve, The Forum, Norwich Who Owns our NHS? Our NHS is steadily being destroyed. Since 2010, £10 billion of contracts have been

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Daily Mail: Health trust shamed for dangerously restraining its patients: Body faces being put in special measures after using technique that can be fatal

Rosie Taylor of the Daily Mail reports: A mental health trust where patients have been punished with a dangerous form of restraint faces being put into special measures. Inspectors found serious problems at the body that oversees mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk. These included patients being held in the face-down prone position and

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Kept in the Dark: NSFT’s Mutualisation Application Part III

3. WHAT IS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE LEVELS OF STAFF ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR ORGANISATION(S) AND THE MAIN CHALLENGES YOU CURRENTLY FACE TO IMPROVING THIS? Our staff engagement data is currently poor; NSFT scored very poorly in the 2013 NHS Staff survey, being in the bottom 20% of participants on many measures. Our overall staff engagement

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Computer Weekly: Health trust proposed offshoring mental care through Skype

More coverage of the Skype proposal from NSFT. Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s innovative proposals have now even made it into the computer industry trade press. Click on the image below to read the full article:  

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