EDP: Carlton Colville woman blasts mental health chiefs over cuts

A woman whose husband suffers from dementia has criticised proposed cuts to mental health services in Waveney and Great Yarmouth, saying lives are being destroyed by measures designed to save money. Mrs Sale, of Rushmere Road, Carlton Colville, said her husband was sent to the Coach House specialist dementia care home in Hemsby, where she […]

EDP: Carlton Colville woman blasts mental health chiefs over cuts Read More »

Quiz Answer: The increase in staffing at NSFT after the three month recruitment drive was NINE!

Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) managed to add just NINE out of its pledged 269 additional staff. That is only 3.3 per cent of its target and an average net increase of three per month. This isn’t a laughing matter.  Staff are desperately needed because: community team caseloads are unmanageable and unsafe; wards

Quiz Answer: The increase in staffing at NSFT after the three month recruitment drive was NINE! Read More »

Quiz time: What is the increase in staffing at NSFT after the three month recruitment drive?

Remember this from April 2014? “Directors were told that the mental health trust had secured an extra £500,000 from Clinical Commissioning Groups in Norfolk to help hire new staff to meet demand. It comes after NSFT officials announced last week that 269 of 412 vacancies would be filled in the next three months.” At the time,

Quiz time: What is the increase in staffing at NSFT after the three month recruitment drive? Read More »

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

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

Exclusive: Letter to HealthEast from all Waveney AMHPs exposes crisis in Suffolk and calls for NSFT Executive Board to resign

“NSFT are not to fit to lead or manage mental health services in Great Yarmouth and Waveney. The testimony and reflection above demonstrates this. As such, nothing they propose can be trusted by the CCG to be able to address the endemic problems they themselves have caused. The Waveney AMHP group calls on the CCG

Exclusive: Letter to HealthEast from all Waveney AMHPs exposes crisis in Suffolk and calls for NSFT Executive Board to resign Read More »

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

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

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 »

Community Care: ‘Critically unwell’ mental health patients sent home due to bed shortages

Sue Bailey, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said that the survey findings showed mental health services were at a “tipping point”. “Continued cuts to services can only result in further distress and discomfort for patients, many of whom are young, vulnerable, some of whom are forced to receive care far from home. This

Community Care: ‘Critically unwell’ mental health patients sent home due to bed shortages Read More »

Devastating HealthEast consultation results: less than 10% of respondents accept NSFT’s proposals to close beds and move to one site

“Proposal One: Adult mental health services This proposal is to reduce the number of adult acute beds from 28 across two sites (Northgate Hospital and Carlton Court) to 20 beds at one of the two sites and to develop one enhanced crisis resolution and home treatment team to cover the whole Great Yarmouth and Waveney area. There will also be

Devastating HealthEast consultation results: less than 10% of respondents accept NSFT’s proposals to close beds and move to one site 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 »

Campaign response to intimidating email from Messrs. Page & Hopkins of NSFT

“Sadly, it is necessary to comment upon the recent email from Mr Page, NSFT Chair, to all NSFT staff. Firstly, we are not a Unison campaign. Unison has no representative on the committee and, although we have received a donation from Unison for which we are most grateful, we have received significant sums from individuals

Campaign response to intimidating email from Messrs. Page & Hopkins of NSFT Read More »

Video: itv NEWS Anglia – Full story and interviews with David Walter, Terry Skyrme, Emma Corlett, Norman Lamb and Andrew Hopkins

Click the image below to watch the videos about Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), including interviews with NSFT patient David Walter, NSFT social worker Terry Skyrme and NSFT nurse Emma Corlett. You will need to scroll down the page to the two video clips. NSFT has repeatedly dismissed and ignored warnings through all

Video: itv NEWS Anglia – Full story and interviews with David Walter, Terry Skyrme, Emma Corlett, Norman Lamb and Andrew Hopkins Read More »

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 »

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