Legal News

The health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said that Norfolk & Suffolk Mental Health Foundation Trust (NSFT) must make improvements to services for mental health patients in the area.

NSFT is one of the trusts in England and Wales currently making stringent budget cuts of up to 20%.

Online publisher EDP24 reports that the NSFT had higher than expected numbers of negative responses to a CQC survey of 13,500 NHS mental health patients across the UK.

In Norfolk and Suffolk, more than 250 mental health patients completed the CQC questionnaire – less than half said they did not know who had been in charge of their care in the previous 12 months, and half said they did not know who to contact in the event they experienced a crisis in their mental health.

Last October and November, EDP24 reported NHS patients were complaining about waiting for months to access talking therapies for conditions like depression – while mental health patients requiring acute care were being sent out of the area for inpatient mental health services, including some patients being sent to an acute care unit in Finsbury Park, north London.

The NSFT has responded to the findings of the CQC survey by saying the trust fell within the national average within six of the nine categories – and welcomed the feedback from patients.

Director of Nursing at NSFT, Jane Sayer, said:

“We really value the views of the people who use our services and this survey highlights the areas we need to improve on.
“The feedback shows our patients feel they have not been as involved in their care has much as they would like – and it’s clear that service users feel it has been harder to know who is in charge of their care.

“The focus for us now is to take these views on board and improve our community services for the benefit of our patients.”

The trust recently revealed that, despite stringent budget cuts, a total of £16.3 million was spent on temporary staff during the year 2103-2014, according to its latest annual report.

The outlay on temporary mental health staff amounts to a total of £1.3m per month.

The trust has restructured its services in the last year and reduced its £200m annual budget by nearly £15m.

The trust says that agency staff and locums were used during the restructuring of services. However, the trust spent £2.39m on temporary staff in August this year – and has spent more than £8m on temporary staff for the first half of 2014-2015.

NSFT said it was working “hard to reduce temporary staffing costs, but mental health nurse Emma Corlett – who is also the NSFT Unison media spokesperson – said that the budget cuts to local mental health services had proved to be a “false economy”.

“These figures are alarming – this unbudgeted expenditure is unsustainable and presents a further serious risk to our mental health services,” she said.

“The use of temporary staffing to plug gaps is poor for continuity and consistency of care – which established evidence suggests leads to worse outcomes for people who use mental health services.

“The consequences of these deep cuts to our services are starting to bite even more now and we need urgent intervention in the form of additional funding, and call on Norman Lamb – the government minister responsible – NHS England and the Clinical Commissioning Groups to act.

“Fine words about parity of esteem between mental and physical health mean nothing without action,” Ms Corlett added.

All three main political parties have pledged to make mental health care equal to NHS care for physical conditions, but mental health patients in many areas are still facing long waiting lists to access mental health services.

Duncan Lewis Mental Health Lawyers

Duncan Lewis is the UK’s largest provider of Legal Aid mental health services – and can advise patients on issues such as access to services and detention under the Mental Health Act.

Duncan Lewis mental health solicitors are also available for short notice appointments to advise on mental health law at hospitals, police stations and prisons across the country.

For expert legal advice on mental health law, call the Duncan Lewis Mental health Solicitors Helpline on 0203 114 1224.