EDP: Opinion: Why we wanted to get hold of emails from NHS’ communications bosses

Car Crash, CQC Inspection, Dangerous, Deaths Crisis, Dis the CQC, In NSFT's words, Knowing me, knowing you, aha!, Meltdown, PR Crisis, Press, Questions for the Board, Radical Restructure, Special Measures / By

Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press explains: I have been writing about problems at our mental health service for this newspaper since 2012. In that time, I have sat through inquests of those let down by the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) and interviewed many grieving and angry families. I’ve also followed the […]

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A Stitch-up is not Safe: Campaign writes to Care Quality Commission regarding NSFT inspection

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Campaigning, Community Crisis, CQC Inspection, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Deaths Crisis, Knowing me, knowing you, aha!, Meltdown, NSFT Cuts, PR Crisis, Recruitment Crisis, Special Measures / By

Today, we have written to Care Quality Commission (CQC) expressing our concerns about the inspection currently underway at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), echoing the views of many stakeholders. While we desperately want NSFT to improve, any improvement needs to be genuine rather predetermined for the convenience of the NHS bureaucracy. CQC cannot

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EDP: ‘The system is broken’ – emergency mental health 999 incidents double

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Campaigning, Car Crash, Community Crisis, CQC Inspection, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Deaths Crisis, Meltdown, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board, Revolving Doors, s136 Crisis, Section 75, Special Measures / By

Dominic Gilbert of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Urgent mental health-related incidents attended by police officers have almost doubled in four years as pressures on the 999 service grow. Coinciding with the ‘radical redesign’ and ruthless cuts to mental health community, crisis and home treatment teams and beds; the closure of assertive outreach and homeless

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£175K Chief Executive of failed NSFT abandons mental health trust during CQC inspection to go on holiday

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Campaigning, Car Crash, Cartoons, Community Crisis, CQC Inspection, Crisis Team Crisis, Dis the CQC, Kept in the dark, Knowing me, knowing you, aha!, NSFT Cuts, PR Crisis, Questions for the Board, Special Measures / By

Antek Lejk, the Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), who was imposed despite service users and carers finding him unappointable, has decided to go on holiday while health professionals from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have congregated from across the country to inspect services at the failing mental health trust. We

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Farewell Robert Nesbitt, ridiculously-titled ‘Company Secretary’

Bed Crisis, Car Crash, Community Crisis, CQC Inspection, Crisis Team Crisis, Deaths Crisis, Financial crisis, Kept in the dark, Knowing me, knowing you, aha!, NSFT - A Warning from History, NSFT Cuts, PR Crisis, Questions for the Board, Recruitment Crisis, Revolving Doors, Special Measures / By

Robert Nesbitt retires as ‘Company Secretary’ at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) this week on a fine salary and pension. In many ways, the career of Robert Nesbitt exemplifies all that has gone wrong at NSFT. Before the merger which created NSFT, Robert Nesbitt was ‘Director of Community Engagement’ at Suffolk Mental Health

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Chronology of a scandal: Antek Lejk’s role in the out-of-hours deaths scandal at NHS Cornwall

Bed Crisis, Campaigning, Car Crash, CQC Inspection, Dangerous, Deaths Crisis, Dis the CQC, Financial crisis, Kept in the dark, Knowing me, knowing you, aha!, NSFT Cuts, PR Crisis, Questions for the Board, Recruitment Crisis, Revolving Doors, Sister campaigns, Special Measures / By

The Chair of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Gary Page, has been claiming that the role of Antek Lejk in the out-of-hours scandal at NHS Cornwall was peripheral. However, we have spoken to clinicians and campaigners in Cornwall who have told us that Antek Lejk was central and a driving force of what

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EDP: Call made to ‘end culture of pay outs’ in public sector – as it was revealed mental health boss will work six more months

CQC Inspection, Dis the CQC, Kept in the dark, Knowing me, knowing you, aha!, PR Crisis, Press, Questions for the Board, Revolving Doors, Special Measures / By

On the front page of the Eastern Daily Press, Geraldine Scott reports: Call made to ‘end culture of pay outs’ in public sector – as it was revealed mental health boss will work six more months. It comes as it was revealed the chief executive of the region’s failing mental health trust will be paid

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Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 4: BBC News: Trust among worst for treating mentailly ill patients out of county

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Campaigning, Community Crisis, CQC Inspection, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Deaths Crisis, Financial crisis, NSFT - A Warning from History, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board, Special Measures / By

Mariam Issimdar of the BBC reports: Norfolk and Suffolk’s mental health trust is in the top five in the country for sending patients out of area for care. Last year more than 350 adult mental health patients were sent out of the county for treatment by the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT). The BMA’s

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Guardian: NHS child mental health services are failing the next generation, say GPs

CAMHS Crisis, Community Crisis, CQC Inspection, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board, Special Measures / By

Denis Campbell of the Guardian reports: Pulse’s figures, obtained under freedom of information legislation from 15 mental health trusts, showed that 61% of children and young people referred for help from CAMHS in 2015 received no treatment. A third were not even assessed for it. Only 20% of under-18s referred to Norfolk and Suffolk NHS

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The Guardian: Number of mental health nurses falls 10%

Dangerous, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board, Recruitment Crisis / By

Denis Campbell of The Guardian reports: The number of specialist mental health nurses has fallen more than 10% over the past five years, the Guardian has learned, putting the care of rising numbers of patients at risk. The loss of one in 10 of the entire mental health nursing workforce in England has occurred mainly

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EDP Front Page Exclusive: Number of deaths at Norfolk and Suffolk mental health service surges

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Community Crisis, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Financial crisis, Kept in the dark, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board / By

Nick Carding of the EDP reports exclusively: Campaigners say their “worst fears have been confirmed” after it emerged that the number of unexpected deaths of mental health patients in the region is continuing to rise. Figures published by the region’s mental health trust show more patients died unexpectedly in the first half of this financial

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BBC News: Mental health death after Norfolk and Suffolk trust failure

Bed Crisis, Community Crisis, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board / By

Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health patient died after a “failure” to respond in a “timely way” by a stretched health trust team, a report says. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust report said there were “serious capacity issues” with its crisis resolution team. It says another death occurred after a patient

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Kept in the Dark: Artist’s Impression of chart showing increasing unexpected deaths among those who rely on NSFT

Community Crisis, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Kept in the dark, NSFT Cuts, Questions for the Board / By

We challenged Gary Page, the Chair of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), to publish NSFT’s data on unexpected deaths after his report to the NSFT Board stated he was “concerned” at the increase in unexpected community deaths from 95 in 2013-14 to 130 in 2014-15. On the same day Gary Page refused to publish,

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Gallery: Slides from Public Meeting: What is happening at NSFT? Do we still need a campaign?

Anniversary Open Meeting, Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Campaigning, Community Crisis, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Financial crisis, In NSFT's words, Kept in the dark, NSFT Cuts, Questions for the Board, Section 75, Special Measures / By

You can view the presentation in the Gallery below or download the slides as a pdf to view offline, distribute or print.   The sources of the employment data are the various Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Annual Report and Accounts published between 2011 and 2015. The sources of the Serious Incident (SI)

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EDP: ‘You seem to be a board that’s in denial’ – number of deaths rise at Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Campaigning, Community Crisis, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Kept in the dark, NSFT Cuts, PR Crisis, Press, Questions for the Board / By

An internal investigation has been launched into mental health services in Suffolk and Norfolk after the number of patient deaths increased from 95 to 130 in a year. It means that the average number of deaths, including in accidents and suicides by people known to professionals to be living with a mental health disorder, has

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EADT: Number of deaths among Suffolk and Norfolk mental health patients rises by a third in one year

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Campaigning, Community Crisis, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Kept in the dark, NSFT Cuts, PR Crisis, Press, Questions for the Board / By

Ellis Barker of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: An internal investigation has been launched into mental health services in Suffolk and Norfolk after the number of patient deaths increased from 95 to 130 in a year. It means the average number of deaths, including in accidents and suicides by people known to professionals to

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Research: Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care

Bed Crisis, CAMHS Crisis, Clozapine Crisis, Community Crisis, Crisis Team Crisis, Dangerous, Financial crisis, Recruitment Crisis, s136 Crisis / By

Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care Mary Docherty and Graham Thornicroft International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2015 9:34 DOI: 10.1186/s13033-015-0023-9 © Docherty and Thornicroft. 2015 Abstract Background Since the economic recession began in 2008 anecdotal reports suggest that mental health services in England have experienced disinvestment, but published data to test

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Kept in the Dark: Video: BBC News: Cuts, Crisis and Cover-up at NSFT

Campaigning, Community Crisis, Financial crisis, In NSFT's words, Kept in the dark, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board, Special Measures / By

A brave whistleblower tells Nikki Fox of the BBC that the crisis has not gone away; that the demand for mental health services still far exceeds clinical capacity; that the management of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) appears to have little understanding of the scale of the problems. The Norwich South MP, Clive

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NSFT – A Warning from History: “Assertive Outreach was simply airbrushed out”

Campaigning, Community Crisis, Dangerous, NSFT - A Warning from History, NSFT Cuts, Press, Questions for the Board / By

NSFT claims to the EDP: Has the trust taken on board the concerns about the scrapping of the Assertive Outreach Team? If so what has been done? “Following the integration of the assertive outreach function into our adult community teams we constantly review how best we can support those who have severe and enduring mental

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