The proper provision of Mental Health services should be a central part of a modern health service. For too long, mental health has been the poor relation of NHS healthcare, with fragmented and inadequate services causing untold distress to patients across Norfolk.

Having seen at first hand in my own family, as well as with close friends, the devastating effects of inadequate mental health services on both patients and their friends and families, this has been, and remains, an issue very close to my own heart since I was elected. Proper diagnosis, treatment and community support services will not only save patients the agony of untreated illness, but will also save our wider society the huge downstream costs of untreated mental illness too.

The NSFT has had long term problems with its level of service, performance, management and staff morale which all of us involved in healthcare in Norfolk have seen and tried to tackle over the last decade.

That’s why I have been working closely with ministers, officials, the CQC and NHS England over the past few months to ensure we continue to highlight this issue and the need for reform – and why I have welcomed an invitation from the Minister for Mental Health to join other MPs from across Norfolk and Suffolk at a meeting to discuss the future of NSFT and mental health provision here in the East. A number of senior figures and officials will also be present, and I look forward to holding them to account, in addition to making clear why we cannot simply go for the same attempted solutions that have not worked as effectively as desired in the past.

Reform is never easy. But it’s key that this issue is properly gripped now and got right. I am very concerned that, after years of problems at the NSFT and a new management team, the organisation is still struggling to improve sufficiently.

I look forward to speaking up again for patients, and their friends and families, at next week’s meeting – and to providing further updates in the near future.

To stay up to date with my work on this issue, please visit here.