We have provided evidence to the Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (NHOSC) and hope that a carer and distinguished member of our campaign will be given the opportunity to speak. NSFT unexpected deaths is the first item on the agenda. Details of the meeting are here. A location map is at the bottom of […]
Caroline Kingdon of the BBC reports: A charity in Norwich that helps the homeless says they’ve seen an increase in the number of rough sleepers in the city over the last few years. The St Martins Housing Trust, which runs the 30-bed Bishopbridge House hostel, says this year they’ve seen about 200 people come through their doors,
BBC News: Increasing numbers of rough sleepers in city Read More »
Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Campaigners say they are “deeply troubled” after it emerged the number of mental health patients waiting longer than national standards for treatment has risen by nearly 200pc. Under the NHS constitution patients should be treated within 18 weeks of referral but new figures reveal 280 patients waited
Tom Bristow of the Archant Investigations Unit reports: The region’s troubled mental health service has been accused of failing to learn from its mistakes after it emerged that nowhere in the country had more concerns raised about mental health deaths than Norfolk and Suffolk. Coroners have written to the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT)
EDP: Deaths at mental health service show lack of learning, says doctor Read More »
In an excellent letter to the Eastern Daily Press, Brian Watkins, Liberal Democrat county councillor for the Eaton Division of Norfolk County Council writes: It is deeply disturbing to learn that there has been a big increase in the number of patients under the care of the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust who have died unexpectedly. Despite repeated reassurances that the situation would be
EDP: Letter: Reasons for rise in unexpected deaths need to be established Read More »
Tom Bristow of the Archant Investigations Unit reports in the Eastern Daily Press: A record number of patients are dying unexpectedly each month at the region’s troubled mental health trust, despite years of reassurances and reviews into the problem. Campaigners and families of those who have died reacted with horror today to the latest set
In 2012-13, 7.3 patients of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) died unexpectedly each month. Each and every year since, the number of patients of NSFT dying unexpectedly has increased significantly. Our campaign was founded in 2013 by staff concerned about unnecessary deaths as a result of the cuts and chaos of the radical
EDP: Graphic – The large rise in the number of patients dying unexpectedly at the NSFT Read More »
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is busy denying its own plans for ‘Putting People First’ now that they have become public. Here is what the Board of NSFT wrote in its own Annual Operational Plan 2016-17 in April 2016 to its regulator, Monitor: Over any year we anticipate our staff numbers to change,
Nikki Fox and Nic Rigby of the BBC report: An NHS trust caring for mentally ill people in Norfolk and Suffolk which was placed in special measures by a care watchdog, is planning to cut 90 posts. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust wants to cut its deficit from £8.9m in 2015-16 to £6.1m in
BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust to cut 90 posts Read More »
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
Guardian: NHS child mental health services are failing the next generation, say GPs Read More »
Caroline Price of Pulse reports: A whole generation of children is being failed by mental health services, say GPs who struggle to access specialist help for their patients. Seven out of the 15 trusts showed marked reductions. For example, at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust the proportion treated fell from 42% to 26%,
Pulse: Why do 60% of GP child mental health referrals end with no treatment? Read More »
Caroline Price of Pulse reports: Figures obtained from 15 mental health trusts reveal that 60% of GP referrals to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) lead to no treatment and a third are not even assessed. The situation for young people with mental health issues appears to be worsening, with the numbers of referrals
Pulse: Two-thirds of GP referrals for child mental health lead to no treatment Read More »
Will Lodge of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: The death of an aspiring art student from the Essex/Suffolk border highlighted “systemic failings” and “weaknesses” in the Suffolk mental health trust, her family told an inquest. Hannah Noyce, who represented Miss Philo Powell’s parents at the inquest, told the court there were apparent “systemic failings”,
EADT: Death of Harriet Philo Powell highlighted ‘weaknesses’ in mental health care Read More »
Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times reports shocking news: Labour has joined calls demanding more money be made available for mental health services in Suffolk, warning that reported cuts of £200,000 will have “severe consequences” for sufferers in the county. Sarah Adams, Labour’s health spokeswoman, said the cuts in provision were “disappointing to
Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: Suffolk’s mental health trust risks financial losses and reputational damage because of its poor performance training medical students. Directors discussing the programme at last week’s board meeting were told the University of East Anglia (UEA) had proposed to remove its students from the trust because of
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
EDP: Mental health trust struggling to fill nursing shifts on region’s inpatient wards Read More »
The papers for last week’s Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) Board meeting report: SIFT and provision of medical undergraduate teaching. On 29th April the UEA wrote to NSFT to highlight the poor performance of teaching for Undergraduates provided by NSFT, the concerns about the length of time it has taken to make changes and the plan
The EDP printed this letter from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk on Saturday 18th June 2016: Dear Editor So, the Independent Inquiry into the deaths of patients under the care of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has concluded that the number of these deaths is no worse
EDP: Letter: Shocking Figures Reveal Impact of cuts on Mental Health Services Read More »
A mother and carer responds to the tragic death of Henry Curtis-Williams: “Again another young person has died when he should have been protected from the dangers of mental illness. Assessed by a psychiatrist as needing no clinical care and released the next day without medication, Henry Curtis-Williams died and his mother and father have been
An NSFT Mother and Carer responds to the tragic death of Henry Curtis-Williams Read More »
Keiligh Baker of the Daily Mail reports: The parents of a student who took his own life just five days after being released from a psychiatric unit are ‘distraught’ that police and health staff failed to alert them to his mental state. Henry Curtis-Williams was detained by police under the Mental Health Act after he was
