Campaigners urging police to investigate the deaths of thousands of mental health patients have taken their calls to Westminster.

Members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk have travelled to the capital to meet with Maria Caulfield, the government's minister for mental health.

They say police should probe into the deaths of more than 8,000 people who died while receiving mental health treatment in the region over a three year period.

The stark "unexpected deaths" figure was revealed last year following a review into the mortality data held by the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust .

Since this review, the campaign group has called for police to investigate the circumstances of these deaths, arguing some may have crossed the threshold of corporate manslaughter.

The group says it has been gathering evidence for some of these cases, which will be presented to Ms Caulfield during a meeting on Tuesday.

The campaign will also reiterate its calls for a public inquiry into mental health deaths in the region.

A group spokesman said the situation had turned into "the largest deaths crisis in the history of the NHS".

It comes almost two years after the same group travelled to parliament with calls for a public inquiry into the crisis.

The calls were recently backed by Norfolk County Council, which wrote to the government highlighting their concerns.

However, local NHS bosses sparked fury last month with their own letter warning an inquiry could put patient care at risk.

In a joint statement, bosses from NSFT and the region's integrated care board argued the "time and energy" an inquiry would take from leaders would "inevitably compromise services".

The mental health campaign last met with MPs in London in July 2022, but calls for an inquiry have intensified since then.