Mental health trust accused of cover-up over ward closures

Speaking to the EDP in November, Diane Hull, chief nurse at the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, said: “We have taken the difficult decision to not accept any further patients into our adult ward at Northgate Hospital in Great Yarmouth. This is a temporary arrangement and is not a decision we have taken lightly.”

They explained it was to catch up on face-to-face staff training missed during the pandemic.

In fact, we can reveal, the Trust closed two inpatient wards to new admissions as an emergency measure to prevent the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from imposing conditions on its licence to operate, which might have prevented NSFT from taking on any new patients, jeopardising its business model.

In a November 5 letter sent just three days into its inspection, the CQC said it could not be sure NSFT had adequate risk assessments in place, or that ligature points had been removed, or that staff were properly trained at managing violent behaviours.

It also said it could not be sure staff were properly removing risk items when locking patients in their rooms, or that safeguarding concerns were being reported, or that incidents where patients had to be physically restrained were being properly recorded.

The CQC threatened immediate sanctions under Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act, and in response NSFT closed the adult ward in Northgate hospital in Yarmouth and the Glaven ward at Hellesdon hospital in Norwich, both in-patient wards for severely mentally unwell adults.

The CQC report makes clear it was the ward closures which stopped them issuing the Section 31 notice.

Nick Fulcher, whose 81-year-old mother-in-law Peggy Coleman died in an ambulance by the side of the M11 while under NSFT’s care, said: “They keep saying it’s a new leaf and a new start and they’re going to be better and more transparent.

“But in fact they tell people as little as they think they can get away with. I thought the NHS had a ‘duty of candour’.

"This isn’t candour, it’s another cover-up.”

Last month NSFT CEO Stuart Richardson was criticised for denying a Freedom of Information request from this newspaper seeking the release of the action plan of improvements the trust submitted to the CQC.

The CQC rated NSFT inadequate for the fourth time in seven years after its most recent inspection, which found 109 areas below the legal minimum requirements.

An NSFT spokesman said of the latest development: “The CQC highlighted the need for additional face-to-face training. To ensure the safety of everyone using our services, we took the decision to stop accepting admissions onto the wards while that training took place, particularly PMA (Prevention and Management of Aggression) training.

“We are grateful for the inspector’s feedback as it helped us to focus on the changes which were needed and ensure they were made quickly.”

He said training levels had improved since the inspection.

WHAT THE CQC SAID

“On the 5 November 2021, we served the provider with a letter of intent under Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 telling the provider we had identified areas of significant concern during the inspection and to warn them of possible urgent enforcement action.

“We told the provider that we were considering whether to use our powers to urgently impose conditions on their registration.

“The effect of using Section 31 powers is serious and immediate. The provider was told to submit an action plan that described how it was addressing the concerns.

“Their response, including their decision to close two wards to admissions as well as continuing with the closure to admissions of a third ward already in place prior to inspection, provided enough assurance they had acted to address the urgent and immediate concerns and therefore we did not take forward urgent enforcement action.”

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