The scandal of mental health patients being sent many miles from home is coming to a head - with just three months left for health chiefs to end the practice.

Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) has promised for almost a decade to stop sending patients out of area.

But a trust spokesman said it had "more to do" ahead of the national deadline to end the placement days by September.

It comes after the scandal took a new twist last week, with the inquest into the death of Peggy Copeman, 81, from New Buckenham, who passed away in an M11 layby while being transported by private ambulance from Taunton to Norfolk.

Since March 2017, there have been 41,473 out of area bed days, and the closest the trust has been to no out of area days was July 2020 with 110.

In 2014, NSFT bosses said they would stop sending patients out of area within four months, and the target moved to October 2017, then March 2018.

Eastern Daily Press: Hellesdon Hospital where Ms Wood died last year. NSFT removed staff testimony from a report submitted to the coroner about her death.Hellesdon Hospital where Ms Wood died last year. NSFT removed staff testimony from a report submitted to the coroner about her death. (Image: Newsquest)

Latest figures show 16 people were sent away in March for a total of 330 out of area days, at a total cost of £159,291.

This is down from the same period last year, according to NHS figures which show 945 bed days between 25 patients in March 2020.

A spokesperson for NSFT said: “We want every patient to receive care as close to home as possible and are working hard to meet the national target of zero inappropriate out of area admissions by September 2021.

“We have maintained a reduction in the number of people in out-of-area placements since October 2020 but know we have more to do.

“New investment in community mental health services will bring safer, more effective and responsive mental health services closer to where people live and work, increasing support to prevent crises and supporting people at home as far as possible."

On the final day of Mrs Copeman's inquest last Friday service director Susan Graham claimed no older patients had been sent out of area since her death in December 2019.

Eastern Daily Press: Peggy Copeman died on the side of the road of the M11 while being transported back to Norwich from Devon. A family photograph from her 80th birthday in September 2018. Picture: Fulcher familyPeggy Copeman died on the side of the road of the M11 while being transported back to Norwich from Devon. A family photograph from her 80th birthday in September 2018. Picture: Fulcher family (Image: Archant)

This has been questioned by this paper, with campaigners calling the claim "misinformation" and "semantics" after the trust sent Kathleen Cantell, 73, 240 miles away from Cromer to a private hospital in Darlington, where she later caught Covid-19.

Emma Corlett, county councillor and mental health campaigner, said: "Trust is already at an all-time low between NSFT and the community and it is this misinformation that serves to further damage that.

"She said since Peggy died, so since December 2019. It was misinformation. It shows contempt for the family."

As part of NSFT's work to reduce older age out of area placement Mrs Graham said it had opened Blicking Ward, with 15 and soon to be 21 older adult beds.

This is funded by the trust, which said it would keep the beds open regardless of funding.

The trust said two people aged above 70 had been placed in out of area beds between October 2020 and April 2021 but this was in relation to a patient requiring physical health support and another needing a specialist bed where it was not appropriate to be placed in an older age ward.

A spokesman for the Norfolk and Suffolk Crisis campaign group said: "Seven years we have been going. It's extremely disappointing that nothing has been done to rectify the number of bed closures.

"Also this is not an issue not only on NSFT but with commissioners and the CCG who need to commission more beds.

Eastern Daily Press: Kathleen Cantell, 73, was transferred to a hospital in Darlington after a stint at a Cromer care home did not work out. Photo: SubmittedKathleen Cantell, 73, was transferred to a hospital in Darlington after a stint at a Cromer care home did not work out. Photo: Submitted (Image: Archant)

"They are playing semantics with it [out of area for older people]. We know what excuse they use that it is because she was being treated with a different team. That doesn't matter - she is 73, she is an older person."

The spokesman said its biggest concern was those with mental ill health who should be in hospital remaining in the community.

Acting chief executive Dr Adam Morris said in May said the trust would be "really testing itself" to meet the deadline - but it required working with health providers and commissioners to deal with the challenges.