Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is improving says Care Quality Commission but safety concerns highlighted at Wedgwood House in Bury St Edmunds

Suffolk's mental health trust which has been rated inadequate four times has been told it is improving – but needs to do more to ensure patient safety.

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is now judged requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which said there were still some areas where quality and safety had deteriorated.

Highlighted in the report were specific patient safety concerns regarding the Southgate ward at the Wedgwood House mental health unit in Bury St Edmunds.

The most recent inspection was carried out between September to November 2022, and followed a CQC report published in April 2022, when the trust was served with a warning notice.

It said the NSFT was required to make several improvements to patient safety, within a legally binding timeframe, and the CQC is now satisfied these changes have been made.

Jane Ray, CQC deputy director of operations, said: "While the trust has more to do to consistently provide high standards of care and treatment that people have a right to expect, it’s made welcome progress – even at what continues to be a difficult time for the NHS.

"Although our previous inspection found the trust’s care was very poor, we noted it had a more stable leadership team and board with the potential to drive improvement.

"This team needed time for its approach to deliver results, and our latest inspection found that improvements had been delivered at pace.

"This was particularly evident in the trust’s child and adolescent mental health wards, which had gone through a transformation programme.

"However, the trust hadn't shown improvement in all areas, and there were some aspects of its care where quality and safety had deteriorated."

'Safety hazards' in the Southgate ward seclusion room, at Wedgwood House, Bury St Edmunds were mentioned in the findings of the report.

It said: "The trust must ensure that safety hazards are resolved in the Southgate ward seclusion room and that any seclusions that take place in a patients' bedroom follow processes to make the environment as safe as possible for patients."

Responding to the CQC report, Stuart Richardson, NSFT's CEO, said: "I am incredibly grateful to staff across the trust for their hard work over the past year to deliver these considerable improvements at a time when health and care services are facing significant and sustained pressure.

"These improvements mean we are beginning to provide a better experience for the people using our services and serves as a stepping-stone to get to where we want to be as an organisation – consistently delivering excellent care. "We are not complacent and must continue to make improvements at pace so that we can consistently deliver high quality care."

Zoë Billingham, NSFT chairman, added: "While we recognise that we still have a lot more work to do, we hope the positive movement in our inspection ratings helps to demonstrate how determined we are at NSFT, working with our partners, to make changes at pace for the people who need us."

Today, to coincide with the publication of the CQC report, the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk will hold a vigil.

This will 'remember the people who have died because of failings in mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk'.

In a statement, the campaign group said: "Another year, another CQC report, but for bereaved families, the consequences of inadequate mental health services are with them forever.

"Despite the 'improvements' heralded by the CQC in their report, campaigners remain concerned about patient safety and feel 'requires improvement' is an understatement."