EDP: Mental health trust struggling to fill nursing shifts on region’s inpatient wards

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Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Staffing levels at mental health wards are under the spotlight today after figures revealed a reduction of permanently employed nurses filling shifts. Figures show the trust’s fill-rate of nurses employed by NSFT is fluctuating between 80pc-90pc, meaning managers have to use extra funds to bring in temporary […]

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Fiscal Fantasy Island: NSFT spends over half its Out Of Trust Acute (OOA) Beds budget in first two months of the year

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The number of out of trust acute (OOA) bed days has nearly doubled: from 332 days in April 2016 to 647 days in May 2016. Most of these patients are being sent to the expensive, remote and private Mundesley Hospital, where it seems that none of the medical staff have passed the exams of the Royal

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Help: Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspecting NSFT in July 2016

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CQC, the independent regulator of health, mental health and adult social care in England will be inspecting Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust the week beginning the 11th July.  They would like to hear feedback about mental health services before the inspection. There are a number of ways people can feedback their views (CQC are

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Invitation: 6th June 2016: Meeting with NSFT about unexpected deaths at 6 p.m. today at Hellesdon Hospital

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We’re meeting the Director of Nursing, Jane Sayer, and the Medical Director, Bohdan Solomka, of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to discuss the extremely disappointing report into the alarming increase in unexpected deaths at NSFT to a record number. Worse still, the number of unexpected deaths continues to rise but NSFT remains complacent: there

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BBC News: Norfolk & Suffolk trust records its highest number of unexpected mental health deaths

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The BBC reports: An NHS mental health service, which was the first in England to be placed in special measures, has recorded its highest number of unexpected deaths. Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) recorded 157 deaths in 2014-15, compared to 88 deaths in 2012-13. Verita, which the trust instructed to carry out the investigation,

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Kept in the Dark: Should we expect the ‘independent inquiry’ into unexpected deaths at NSFT to be a whitewash?

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The ‘independent inquiry’ into unexpected deaths at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is being published on Thursday, 26th May 2016 at the NSFT board meeting at Hellesdon Hospital, Norwich. The board meeting starts at 0930. Why not join us? So, should we expect a whitewash? Well, sadly, given our previous experience of being

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EADT: Will new children’s mental health unit in Suffolk solve ‘deeply troubling’ problem of young people in adult wards?

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In another example of first-class investigative journalism, Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: Campaigners have welcomed plans for a new mental health unit for children in Suffolk after it emerged concerning numbers of young people from the region had been sent to adult wards – a practice described by one mother as

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EDP: Mental health patients in our region are being failed by the government, says MP

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Having our campaigning local media and one MP who genuinely cares about mental health makes such a difference. Annabelle Dickson, Political Editor of the EDP, reports: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health services would have almost £70m a year more if they were treated in the same way as physical health, the Norwich South MP has claimed.

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

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

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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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NSFT claims it has enough beds… so WHY DID A PATIENT SLEEP IN THE CORRIDOR LAST NIGHT?

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If Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has enough beds as it claims, why was a patient forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor in the corridor of Waveney Ward at Hellesdon Hospital last night? What would the CQC think about that? Shameful.

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EDP: Mental health trust determined to solve recruitment challenges as government tightens rules on agency nursing spend

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Nicholas Carding, Health Correspondent of the EDP reports: A shortage of permanent nursing staff at several mental health wards in Norfolk has today prompted concerns over patient safety. Directors of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) will discuss staffing issues at a meeting in Norwich tomorrow, with a senior manager warn-ing the problem poses

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Carer’s letter to the Guardian: ‘Will it be my relative next?’

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15th October 2015 Despite family pleas for appropriate treatment, a long term user of Norfolk’s mental health services cut her own throat today.  Visited by a Social worker yesterday, she was “placed on the waiting list for assessment under the Mental Health Act” because when last seen she was observed to be suffering harrowing hallucinations

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Video: BBC News Exclusive Investigation – ‘Firefighting to keep patients alive’

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‘Unprecedented failings’: ‘Firefighting to Keep Patients Alive’ An exclusive investigation of the crisis in mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk on the national News at Six and Ten on BBC1 and the BBC News channel. Isn’t it shameful that the Board of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), led by a Chief Executive

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health funding plan prompts dispute

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Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: Cash for future mental health provision in Norfolk and Suffolk has “fallen short” of what is needed, prompting a dispute with an NHS trust and a funder. Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust said funding offered by central Norfolk clinical commissioning groups (CCG) does not meet the “volume of demand”.

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EDP: Troubled mental health service to get help from Nottingham

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Tom Bristow of the EDP reports: Monitor, which placed the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) in special measures in February, has arranged for staff from Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to improve services and staffing levels in Norfolk and Suffolk. Monitor said in a statement: “Access to this advice and expertise will enable Norfolk

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EADT: Mother of Sudbury’s Joe Ruler, 19, who killed himself at Wedgwood House is left ‘heartbroken’ that same mistakes still being made by NSFT mental health trust

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Matt Reason of the EADT reports: The heartbroken mother of a Sudbury teenager who died in the care of a Suffolk mental health unit has claimed lessons have still not been learnt from her son’s death. Joe Ruler died five years ago at the Wedgwood House unit, in Bury St Edmunds, with an inquest last

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health services branded ‘inadequate’

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A spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health in Norfolk and Suffolk said: “The regulator confirms what our campaign has consistently said for more than a year.” Click on the image below to read Nic Rigby’s full article on the BBC News website.

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EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health service faces being put into special measures for “inadequate” leadership and safety

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The region’s under-fire mental health service should be put into special measures, the chief inspector of hospitals said today, after a highly-critical report branded the trust “inadequate”. Regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) as “inadequate” overall in a damning report today, following an inspection in October last year.

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