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In January, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) chief executive Sam Higginson warned the backlog would not start to clear before March. To help fix the backlog, the government has pledged to bust bureaucracy in the NHS with plans that would see England s major hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups split into 42 boards to control all local health services with one budget for each area. Speaking to the Independent last month NHS England medical director, professor Stephen Powis, denied that the NHS was a Covid-only service . For every Covid patient in hospital, the NHS is treating three people for other conditions - and it is obviously a disservice to the work done by our staff who have kept services going throughout the pandemic to suggest otherwise, he added. ....
Ms Jefferson is now on a waiting list and although she has been prescribed antidepressants, she says it has been a struggle waiting so long to start treatment. “My life is on hold,” she said. “We all know about the physical side of things and how it affects people financially in terms of putting food on the table, and that’s important. But mental health is also important, and sometimes it feels like I’m being ignored.” NHS data from last year reveals 75pc more people from poorer areas of Norfolk and Waveney contacted NHS mental health services compared to people from richer areas. ....