EDP: Cash-strapped Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust spends £307,500 on one redundancy

This is an incredible story of hubris and incompetence which has placed the safety of mental health services at risk due to the subsequent recruitment crisis as well as wasting millions of pounds. However, it is vital that people who depend on mental health services do not pay the price of the NHS bureaucracy’s repeated mistakes. […]

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It is a crisis: What MIND really thinks about mental health under Health Minister Norman Lamb and the CCGs created by his government

Mind has written privately to all prospective Members of Parliament. Rather than the usual sycophantic nonsense for public consumption, Mind has told the brutal truth to prospective MPs: that the consequences of the Health & Social Care Act 2012, the introduction of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and the tenure of Secretary of State at the

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Video: BBC Look East interview mental health nurse Emma Corlett about Monitor’s investigation of NSFT

Watch the video below. If you are an Apple user and have trouble viewing the embedded video you can view it directly on Youtube. Sorry, this issue is a sometime side effect of the on-going battle between Google and Apple which is beyond our control.  

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Video: BBC Look East on Monitor’s Investigation into Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

Watch the video below. If you are an Apple user and have trouble viewing the embedded video you can view it directly on Youtube. Sorry, this issue is a sometime side effect of the on-going battle between Google and Apple which is beyond our control.

Video: BBC Look East on Monitor’s Investigation into Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust Read More »

EDP: Latest: Health regulator Monitor “concerned” about N&N and mental health trust

Tom Briscow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Mrs Mills [of Monitor] said: “We are taking a closer look at NSFT to understand the way the Board works and why the trust is making such a big loss. “The aim of the investigation is to get to the bottom of these issues and to understand

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Audio: Monitor investigation of NSFT is lead interview on BBC Radio Norfolk Breakfast. Norman Lamb is unavailable.

Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) nurse and mental health campaigner, Emma Corlett of Unison, is interviewed by Nicky Price of the BBC. The investigation launched by the NHS regulator, Monitor, was the lead story on BBC Radio Norfolk Breakfast. Norman Lamb claimed to be unavailable for interview and could only issue a mealy-mouthed

Audio: Monitor investigation of NSFT is lead interview on BBC Radio Norfolk Breakfast. Norman Lamb is unavailable. Read More »

BBC News: Monitor to launch inquiry into Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

NHS regulator Monitor is to launch an inquiry into the mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk after concerns were raised over its finances. Monitor said it would look into whether Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) had breached the terms of its licence over its £1.72m deficit. The inquiry follows a Care Quality

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10-bed Assessment Unit fiasco: Can it get worse?

Several supporters have been in touch. They tell us that while Nic Rigby’s report of the rejection of the opening of the 10-bed Assessment Unit is accurate, it is quite conservative in the conclusions it draws. We have also been sent by several sources the relevant sections of the Investment Committee (IC) report submitted by

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk health: Warning over ward plan

A mental health trust does not have funds to reopen a ward intended to ease a beds crisis, a report has warned. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) announced in September plans to reopen 10 beds at Hellesdon Hospital. A report to the trust in October said it should not reopen the ward because

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Video: BBC Look East – Number of people in beds beyond Norfolk & Suffolk rises to 50!

When we started our campaign one year ago, we never thought the beds and community crises would become worse. But they have! We’ve won some victories but imagine how much worse things would be without our campaign! Join us at our Anniversary Open Meeting on Thursday 27th November to fight for decent mental health services. As

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BBC News: Mental health in Norfolk and Suffolk ‘£30m underfunded’

On Saturday the BBC revealed the trust had 50 patients in beds outside the counties, due to a lack of funding and a shortage of beds. The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk has said the trust’s programme to make £40m of cuts by 2018 has had a “devastating impact on

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Bury Free Press: NICOLA MILLER: Cuts to service are disproportionate

“The suicide rate of patients known to the services has risen – a truly appalling and sadly reliable indicator that the existing system is inadequate. It is not the fault of front line staff who are afraid in many cases to speak out. I have spoken to staff so unwell from stress that they themselves

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BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health patients in beds miles from home

Up to 50 mental health patients in Norfolk and Suffolk had to be sent to other parts of England last week because of a shortage of beds and a shortfall in funding. In June Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt criticised the “unacceptable” distances Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) patients had to travel for beds. The

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Invitation to our Anniversary Open Meeting on Thursday 27th November, 7.30-9.30 p.m. Vauxhall Centre, Norwich NR2 2SA

INVITATION TO OUR ANNIVERSARY OPEN MEETING ON THURSDAY 27TH NOVEMBER, 7.30-9.30 PM VAUXHALL CENTRE, NORWICH NR2 2SA Dear all, Our Campaign started a year ago this month when mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk first reached crisis point. The ‘Nicholson Challenge’ imposed £20 billion cost savings on all NHS Trusts. As a result, Norfolk &

Invitation to our Anniversary Open Meeting on Thursday 27th November, 7.30-9.30 p.m. Vauxhall Centre, Norwich NR2 2SA Read More »

BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health cuts ‘devastating’, campaigners say

Funding cuts in Norfolk and Suffolk show the government is failing to put mental and physical health on an equal footing, campaigners say. Mainstream hospitals in the two counties have seen budgets rise by 15% since 2010, while mental health service funding has fallen by 3%. The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk

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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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CQC 2014 Community Mental Health Survey: Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is worst

Table two highlights trusts that scored ‘worse than expected’ for five or more questions across the questionnaire as a whole. Two trusts (Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) were ‘worse than expected’ on 9 or more questions. In both cases the questions identified represent a spread across the various

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The Guardian: Inmate suicide figures expose human toll of prison crisis

This important story details the human cost of the failure to provide proper care in the prison system for those with mental health issues and is a must-read in its own right. However, as a campaign, we have been hearing from Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) staff about ill people being locked in

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BBC News: Mental health ‘starved of resources’, says former coroner

Well said, William Armstrong, Chairman of Healthwatch, former Norfolk Coroner and current Sheriff of Norwich: Mental health services are being “starved of resources”, the chairman of a health watchdog in Norfolk has said. Ex-coroner William Armstrong, of Healthwatch Norfolk, said cuts meant “more misery” for patients and their families. He said he had seen a

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