Furious campaigners have lodged a formal complaint against care regulators who boosted the rating of the region's troubled mental health trust. The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust saw its rating upgraded from inadequate to requires improvement in its last Care Quality Commission inspection. However, it has faced fierce scrutiny since this outcome, with continuing questions over the quality of care it offers and the way the organisation is managed.
These have included criticism for spending £850,000 of public money on a PR agency around the time of the inspection and a scandal involving mortality data. Now, members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk has lodged a formal complaint with the CQC over its handling of the inspection and decision to upgrade the trust. They have accused the inspectors of "maladministration" while running the rule over the organisation.
Hellesdon Hospital, the headquarters of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (Image: Newsquest) In an open letter to the CQC, the campaign said: "It is our contention that inspectors did not demonstrate sufficient curiosity or rigour and were too easily convinced by evidence presented to them. "They chose to take accounts at face value rather than probing to ensure all was bona fide." The campaign also voiced frustration that its members were not included in the inspection process - as they have been in the past.
But the regulator has defended the February 2023 inspec.