Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust fails to stop sending patients out of area
The trust has admitted to failing to meet its deadline again.
The region’s mental health trust has failed to end the scandal of patients being sent miles from home for help, with a target date to see it stopped pushed back again.
In 2014, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) bosses vowed to stop sending patients out of the area within four months, a target which was moved to October 2017, then March 2018.
And now, after more delays, the chief executive of the trust said pandemic demand has meant they have failed to meet their latest deadline this month.
A report to the NSFT board of directors ahead of a meeting on September 23 said the deadline has been pushed back another seven months, to April 2022.
Its most recent figures show there were 235 out of area placement days in July 2021, down from a high of 1,974 in April 2019.
But campaigners have said any number is too high.
A spokesperson for the Norfolk and Suffolk Crisis campaign group said: “We are absolutely disgusted that they haven’t moved further towards achieving this objective.”
The spokesperson stressed each number was someone being let down by the system.
Emma Corlett, county councillor and mental health campaigner, said: “We have been waiting for eight and a half years for this to be addressed.
“But NSFT can’t magic beds out of the air and they don’t have the staff to stop people reaching crisis point the first place.”
She added: “There needs to be massive investment from central government but the trust also needs to be run by people who will know what to do with it.”
Both raised concerns the trust could be put under further strain as furlough and the universal credit uplift comes to an end.
Responding to the delay, Stuart Richardson, NSFT chief executive, said: “We want to be able to treat everyone needing a hospital stay as close to home as possible.
“Sadly, the current demand for mental health support means we will not meet the ambition to reduce the number of people we send out of area for hospital care to zero in September.
“As a system, we will work towards March 2022.”
Mr Richardson said the pandemic has had a significant impact on mental health and staff are treating more patients than ever before.
The health chief said they were working with social care and voluntary sector colleagues to improve services over the next three years, increase support to prevent crises and care for people at home as much as possible.