Research: NSFT featured anonymously in prestigious Journal of Management Studies

The salary of more than £150,000 per year paid by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to its Director of Research without a PhD appears to have finally paid off. NSFT’s management has been featured anonymously in a leading business journal, Journal of Management Studies. You can read the fascinating article by Mats Alvesson […]

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The Guardian: Nuwan Dissanayaka: Jamie is psychotic and won’t go outside. Mental health services are failing him

This article from Nuwan Dissanayaka needs to be read by everybody with an interest in mental health. Dr. Dissanayaka is really worth following on Twitter. We’re delighted Nuwan’s views are getting wider attention in the national press. Dr. Dissanayaka is the consultant psychiatrist in the Assertive Outreach team in Leeds. Of course, assertive outreach at

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 3: Maggie Wheeler, Chair, NSFT

Because of her then status in the Norwich Labour Party, and the frequent use of politically-correct buzzwords like ‘recovery’ and ‘ImROC’, many people trusted Maggie Wheeler and her Board when it promised ‘new services will be as effective as they are now, if not better’ as a result of the Trust Service Strategy (TSS) at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), better

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Deaths Crisis: HSE: Hospital fined after safety failings led to dementia patient’s death

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has been fined £366,000 after the death of a patient on a specialist dementia ward. Norwich Crown Court heard how Mrs Joan Darnell, age 78, had been admitted as a patient to the Julian Hospital, on 28 September 2014 on the Blicking Ward, a specialist ward for patients suffering

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EDP: Norfolk and Suffolk NHS trust fined £366k after 78-year-old patient drowned in hospital bath

Christine Cunningham of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A Norfolk and Suffolk NHS trust has been fined £366,000 for health and safety failings after a 78-year-old patient was found drowned in a bath on a hospital ward. Joan Darnell, who had dementia and bipolar disorder, had been taken from her home in Field Grange, Lowestoft,

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Health Service Journal: The worrying truth about mental health services: The King’s Fund on NSFT’s failure

Helen Gilburt, a fellow in health policy at The King’s Fund, writes: The example of Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust provides a stark reminder of the risks associated with undertaking whole-system transformation at scale and pace. To pre-empt increased financial risk and deliver efficiency savings, the trust engaged in delivering a vision of implementing recovery-orientated

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

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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EDP: In depth: Extracts from the report into mental staff and their views on changes

We’ve been called liars, trolls and mental health extremists. We say we simply told the truth and fought for decent mental health services. Read the story from inside NSFT and make up your own mind. How was this allowed to happen? Why haven’t the CCGs funded mental health properly? How were all the warnings ignored?

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EDP: Revealed: Damning contents of staff report into problems within Norfolk and Suffolk’s mental health trust

Campaign supporters should buy the EDP today. We need to support high-quality investigative journalism which has played a key role in holding Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to account, as it did at Mid Staffs, in the absence of any meaningful response to the crisis in mental health services from the Department of

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Kept in the Dark: EDP: Mental health trust rejects efforts to reveal damning report

The EDP reports: The region’s ailing mental health trust has refused to release a highly-critical report containing the views of some of its staff, claiming that doing so would stop workers from raising issues in future. Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was placed in special measures in February and is also under investigation by

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Kept in the Dark: NSFT blocks our appeal against refusal to release the Alexander Report

Yet again, the Chair of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Gary Page, demonstrates that NSFT is incapable of genuine transparency, as he tries to hide the devastating impact of its calamitous radical redesign and refuses our appeal for the Alexander Report to be published. Of course, we haven’t received any response to the

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

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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Kept in the Dark: NSFT gags service users, carers, governors, staff and public

Board of Directors – Public Session Held on Thursday 26th March 2015 at 9.30 am in the Main Hall, Hellesdon Hospital Chair’s welcome and notifications Gary Page welcomed the Board of Directors, governors, staff and public. The Chair informed those present that questions from the public gallery would be taken at the end of the agenda

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Kept in the Dark: Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) tries to hide the devastating impact of the ‘radical redesign’

Our decision to publish the chain of emails between our campaign and Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) finally forced a response from Michael Scott, the £175,000 per year Chief Executive of NSFT, on 30th April 2015. We submitted our original FOI request in December 2014. NSFT is supposed to respond in 20 days.

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EADT Editorial: A sad lesson in how to get it so very, very wrong

A sad lesson in how to get it so very, very wrong So, those who suggested the emperor was parading naked, and not clad in new finery, have been proved right. The very birth of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust was accompanied by a chorus of warnings: about jobs; about finance; and – crucially – about care. Critics

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Lobby South Norfolk CCG: The Chart which shames Norman Lamb and the Seven CCGs (and the NSFT Board too)

The chart below details the changes in the funding provided to Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) and the local acute NHS Trusts by the seven Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Norfolk and Suffolk. While Norman Lamb, North Norfolk MP and the Secretary of State at the Department of Health directly responsible for mental

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Ipswich Star: Students from University Campus Suffolk celebrate their successes at their graduation ceremonies

“Maggie Wheeler was also awarded an honorary degree for her work in mental health. She was chairman of what became Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust for a decade.” Many campaign supporters have contacted us to express their utter bewilderment at the decision of University Campus Suffolk to award Maggie Wheeler an honorary degree for

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Devastating HealthEast consultation results: Public decisively rejects closure of 12 beds for older people at Carlton Court by nearly 7:1

The permanent closure of 12 older people’s beds. HealthEast is interested in your feedback on the elements of these proposals. Permanently closing 12 beds at Laurel Ward, Carlton Court. “These are wonderful beds in a first class facility please keep them open. This proposal effectively means that the number of beds for people who require acute

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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

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