Why the CQC selected NSFT for early inspection in its own words: Decision to schedule Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for Inspection

We wrote to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) because Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has been claiming that the forthcoming CQC inspection is routine/random and that the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk & Suffolk was being inaccurate and misleading to write that NSFT had been selected as a priority for early […]

Why the CQC selected NSFT for early inspection in its own words: Decision to schedule Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for Inspection Read More »

Audio: Campaigner Emma Corlett of Unison interviewed on BBC Radio Norfolk about massive cuts envisaged by NSFT’s 5 Year Strategic Plan

We have already written about the massive cuts envisaged by the 5 Year Plan submitted by Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to its regulator, Monitor. At the NSFT Board meeting last week, one of the non-executive directors of NSFT acknowledged that the real-terms depth of the planned cuts is 7.5 per cent per

Audio: Campaigner Emma Corlett of Unison interviewed on BBC Radio Norfolk about massive cuts envisaged by NSFT’s 5 Year Strategic Plan Read More »

EDP: Mental health trust warns of more jobs cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk as part of plans to make £44m more savings

Campaigners have pledged to lobby Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (NSFT) board of directors meeting today over a new plan, which says that extra savings of £44m would need to be found by 2019, if there is no major increase in mental health funding. Members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in

EDP: Mental health trust warns of more jobs cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk as part of plans to make £44m more savings Read More »

NSFT pulls its Five Year Strategic Plan from the internet

But you can still read our copy of the five year strategic plan here. The plan begins on page 20 of the pdf. Strange the way it disappeared after we criticised it. The papers for the Board of Directors meeting in Swaffam tomorrow don’t contain it any longer. How embarrassing.

NSFT pulls its Five Year Strategic Plan from the internet Read More »

26th June 2014: Help us oppose the NSFT Board’s five year plan for further ‘savings’ of £44.1 million, 200 more job losses and more reorganisations and chaos

Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Chair, Gary Page, is too busy watching the football in sunny Brazil to attend the next public Board of Directors meeting at The Green Britain Centre (formerly Eco-Tech) in Swaffam on Thursday, 26th June 2014. But it is vital that we attend. Join us to oppose the rubber stamping

26th June 2014: Help us oppose the NSFT Board’s five year plan for further ‘savings’ of £44.1 million, 200 more job losses and more reorganisations and chaos Read More »

NSFT seeks to reduce out of area placements by refusing emergency admissions rather than by providing necessary beds

A member of the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) crisis team writes: “NSFT seems determined to reduce the number of out of area placements but not by providing an adequate number of local beds. A senior NSFT manager is going around the country trying to discharge out of area patients. How can this

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BBC: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health patients in 200-mile bed trek

“Some mental health patients in Suffolk and Norfolk are having to travel more than 200 miles (321km) for a bed, it has emerged. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the situation was “unacceptable”. Unison urged the government to develop a “rescue package” for mental health services, which they said left 22 patients facing the journey last

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EDP: ‘Unacceptable’ – health secretary Jeremy Hunt pledges action on out of area mental health placements in Norfolk and Suffolk

Adam Gretton of the Eastern Daily Press (EDP) reports: The government’s health minister pledged to “do what it takes” to address the pressure on mental health beds after being told of some Norfolk and Suffolk patients having to travel more than 200 miles for a bed. When told about the situation at NSFT, Mr Hunt

EDP: ‘Unacceptable’ – health secretary Jeremy Hunt pledges action on out of area mental health placements in Norfolk and Suffolk Read More »

Newsflash: NSFT a priority for inspection by CQC under new approach

The CQC website reports: The first batch of NHS mental health providers will be inspected and rated in October using our new approach. The inspections will assess the four providers to see if the service overall is: safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led. They will be carried out by a mixture of

Newsflash: NSFT a priority for inspection by CQC under new approach Read More »

EDP: Graphic – Mental health patients sent to Yorkshire, London and North East after trust misses target to end bed placements outside of Norfolk

But Terry Skyrme, who works as a social worker for the NHS trust and member of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, said that when he left work last Wednesday there were 21 patients in out of area beds, with the vast majority in private hospitals across the country. He

EDP: Graphic – Mental health patients sent to Yorkshire, London and North East after trust misses target to end bed placements outside of Norfolk Read More »

EDP Editorial: Pledge has been broken

“At a time when public funds are stretched, there are huge questions to be asked about the cost of sending people hundreds of miles away to private mental health beds. But on a human level, the practice of dispatching vulnerable patients so far from friends and family, must stop. Officials from the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS

EDP Editorial: Pledge has been broken Read More »

Devastating HealthEast Consultation results: “There is a general lack of confidence in the NSFT”

“For NSFT to attempt to justify further bed reductions while simultaneously cutting community services and spending significant sums on private out of area placement beggars belief. It is a disservice to those we care for and to the staff attempting to manage these serious risks in very difficult circumstances.” “In the current financial reality the CCG and NSFT

Devastating HealthEast Consultation results: “There is a general lack of confidence in the NSFT” Read More »

Community Care: ‘It feels like some lives are worth more than others’: working on the mental health frontline

Emma Corlett writes in Community Care (trigger alert). “As I say, some lives it seems are worth more than others. Where has the humanity gone? It’s a damning indictment of our society and the state of our services that the local shopping centre has now erected safety hoardings to prevent similar incidents. I have no words.”

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NSFT – A Warning from History: March 2013 – Unison’s submission to the Joint Norfolk & Suffolk Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee

Fourteen months ago, when Unison sent the letter below, the Board of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) wasn’t campaigning for fairer funding for mental health. As recently as December 2013, the current NSFT Chair, Mr. Page, was claiming that it wasn’t appropriate for the NSFT Board to question mental health funding as this

NSFT – A Warning from History: March 2013 – Unison’s submission to the Joint Norfolk & Suffolk Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee Read More »

NSFT – A Warning from History: February 2013 EDP – Concerns for patients as 500 mental health jobs face axe in Norfolk and Suffolk

This is an example of how the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Board, NSFT governors, Norfolk and Suffolk clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and local MP and responsible minister, Norman Lamb, were warned of the largely predictable consequences of the ‘radical redesign’. Those who questioned whether the Operations Director’s ‘improvements’ would work safely were

NSFT – A Warning from History: February 2013 EDP – Concerns for patients as 500 mental health jobs face axe in Norfolk and Suffolk Read More »

Sham Consultation: Last chance to pillory the NSFT Board – Tuesday 25/3/2014 – Beccles

Please, please do attend the sham consultation in Beccles on Tuesday 25th March 2014 between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The acting Chief Executive, Medical Director and Operations Director of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) are being forced to publicly account for their ‘radical redesign’ for the last time by Great Yarmouth & Waveney

Sham Consultation: Last chance to pillory the NSFT Board – Tuesday 25/3/2014 – Beccles Read More »

Audio: Recording of sham consultation public meeting on NSFT bed closures in Lowestoft on 13th February 2014

If you at all interested in the crisis in mental health in Norfolk and Suffolk, this is an essential recording. Listen to the Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) executives directly challenged by service users, carers, staff and members of the public, many of them members of this campaign. Congratulations to Great Yarmouth &

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