Patient views on Norfolk and Suffolk trust 'concern' minister

Maria Caulfield met Norfolk and Suffolk health bosses this week after "crisis" complaints

A minister was "concerned" when she heard patient views about mental health services across two counties, a Conservative MP has said.

George Freeman has been at meetings involving mental health minister Maria Caulfield, families and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) managers after "crisis" complaints.

He said Ms Caulfield had been "very concerned" about what patients said.

The trust said it was on a "journey of improvement".

Members of a campaign group met Ms Caulfield on 12 March and demanded an independent public inquiry into the trust, which had been rated "inadequate" by a regulator and was now rated as "requires improvement".

'Taking it seriously'

The meeting - arranged by Mr Freeman, MP for Mid Norfolk, and Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South - came after a 2023 review found that the trust lost track of figures for patient deaths.

Accountants Grant Thornton had examined the way the trust recorded and reported mortality data after campaigners claimed there had been more than 1,000 avoidable deaths at the trust in recent years.

Mr Freeman told the BBC that Ms Caulfield had also met trust bosses earlier this week and he had been "on that call".

"She was asking all the right questions and she had listened to the points and was very concerned about a number of things patients had said," he told BBC Radio Norfolk.

He added: "The minister is really taking this seriously."

Campaigner Mark Harrison says the "deaths crisis" is out of control at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

Mark Harrison, chair of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, has described the "deaths crisis" as "just out of control".

"We've got a mental healthcare system which is the worst in the country," said Mr Lewis.

"There needs to be an independent public inquiry before we do anything else.

"We need to understand what has gone wrong here, what lessons can be learned not just for this trust, but for other trusts around the country."

'Requires improvement'

The trust said, in a statement: ""As a trust, we are on a rapid, and much needed journey of improvement which has been strengthened by the welcome arrival of our experienced chief executive officer, Caroline Donovan.

"Caroline has a proven track record for transforming mental health service provision and has made improving the quality of the clinical care provided by our trust, for those that need us, a number one priority."

The statement said health and adult social care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), had moved the trust from an "inadequate" to a "requires improvement" rating.

Members of the campaign group are due to meet the CQC on Thursday.