Press Release: Campaign statement on the delays to the cuts café

A spokesperson from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said: “People in crisis need real services, not being patronised with cups of tea and endless signposting to long waiting lists or non-existent services. There are already drop-in centres, cafés and NHS services but their funding is deeply inadequate and has […]

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EDP: Mental health crisis hub delayed by a year as patients continue to be sent hundreds of miles for treatment

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A crisis hub pegged to help stem the number of mental health patients sent miles away due to a lack of beds has been delayed by a year in part due to debates over the building it will be in. A wellbeing hub – also known as

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EDP: Mental health service failure “significantly contributed” to suicide of Norwich mother

Dominic Gilbert of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Failures of mental health services “significantly contributed” to the suicide of a mother struggling with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, a jury has found. Katherine Rought-Rought died at her home in North Park Avenue in Norwich on June 1, 2016 from asphyxiation due to strangulation. Only hours

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Beds not Tea: Cuts Café Consultation: Last chance to respond

The bureaucrats who commission NHS mental health services in Norfolk have decided to run their consultation into the proposed cuts café over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, thus ensuring as few people as possible respond. Commissioners tried to do a back-door deal to give a ‘pilot’ cuts café contract to Norfolk Mind without

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BBC News: Mundesley Hospital closes after mental health trust withdraws patients

BBC News reports: A private hospital rated as inadequate has closed down after a mental health trust withdrew all its patients, citing safety concerns. Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) said it was not confident that safety improvements at the 27-bed Mundesley Hospital in Norfolk were taking place quickly enough. This isn’t what complacent

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EDP: Mundesley Hospital’s shock closure following damning care quality report

Only the actions of our mental health campaign ensured Mundesley Hospital was promptly inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) and Norfolk’s Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) would have carried on using the inadequate private hospital without our intervention and that of the EDP. We suspect Jane Sayer’s appalling

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Dis the CQC: EDP: Staff members suspended, police called, and patients left unsupervised at private mental health hospital inspectors could close down in six months

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Inspectors found the hospital was unsafe and poorly led, and chief inspector of hospitals Professor Edward Baker said the CQC was beginning “the process of preventing the provider from operating the service”. This means if in six months things have not improved, the CQC will shut the

Dis the CQC: EDP: Staff members suspended, police called, and patients left unsupervised at private mental health hospital inspectors could close down in six months Read More »

Video: BBC Look East leads with the immediate ‘retirement’ of NSFT Chief Executive, Michael Scott

Stewart White and Mike Liggins lead BBC Look East with the sudden ‘retirement’ of the Chief Executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), Michael Scott, shortly before the publication of an inspection report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As well as outlining the worsening bed crisis and millions wasted on temporary staff,

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust chief executive to retire

The BBC reports: The chief executive of a troubled mental health trust, which came out of special measures in October, is standing down. The trust was placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February 2015, but was taken out of special measures in 2016. A new report from the CQC is

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Campaign statement on the immediate ‘retirement’ of Chief Executive of NSFT, Michael ‘Payrise’ Scott

  “We have long been calling for a new Board and management culture at NSFT which puts patients and carers first and foremost and genuinely engages with front line staff. “While Michael Scott’s sudden ‘retirement’ is a personal tragedy, albeit one tempered by an enormous pension, it could represent the beginning of an opportunity to

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Dis the CQC: NSFT pays consultants £58,000 to contradict the Care Quality Commission about beds

Explaining why services at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) were unsafe, the most recent inspection report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) noted (page 8): “There remained a shortage of beds across the trust and that this had impaired patient safety and treatment at times. Staff worked with other services in the trust

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Beds Crisis: EDP: Man spends nearly three days in police custody waiting for a mental health bed

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A man was held in police custody for nearly 60 hours while he waited for a mental health bed to become available. The man – one of 10 similar cases recorded by police between May 2016 and February 2017 – was arrested for a public order offence

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

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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Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 3: EDP: A staggering waste: More than £1.6m spent sending region’s mental health patients to private hospital in just seven months

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: More than £1.6m has been spent by the region’s mental health trust on sending patients to a private hospital since it was put into special measures by inspectors last year. Mental health campaigners alleged Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) continue to use the private Mundesley Hospital,

Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 3: EDP: A staggering waste: More than £1.6m spent sending region’s mental health patients to private hospital in just seven months Read More »

Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 2: EDP: Half of mental health beds budget for Norfolk and Suffolk spent in first month of year

Tom Bristow, Investigations Editor of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Last year the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) went £3.5m over budget on sending patients to beds at other facilities, including private hospitals and out of the area. Its budget for buying beds from other providers is £1m a year. But it used almost

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Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 1: ‘No decisions about me, without me’

Below is a list of the people interviewed in the so-called ‘wide range of engagement meetings with local stakeholders’ during the £58,000 Beds Review. Thirty-nine are senior employees of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). Five are commissioning bureaucrats. None are service users. None are bereaved relatives. None are carers. None are from patient

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Beds Crisis: EDP: How 140 NHS mental health beds have been cut in Norfolk and Suffolk

Investigative reporter Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A quarter of mental health beds in Norfolk and Suffolk have been lost in the last four years. While England has seen the number of mental health beds fall by 3,500 since 2012, a drop of 16pc, the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT), which

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Beds Crisis: EDP: Campaigners criticise new mental health trust proposals: ‘We want beds not cups of tea’

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: No new beds for patients in psychiatric crisis will be made available by the region’s mental health trust, despite concerns being raised by the health watchdog over that a shortage of beds “had impaired patient safety and treatment at times”. We haven’t found a senior doctor at

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