The region's troubled mental health trust paid out more than £1m in negligence claims in the past year, new figures have shown.

The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust agreed to pay £1.3m in damages after patients or carers made claims against the organisation.

The figures relate to a five-year period, up to April 2024, when 54 claims were made against the embattled trust, which provides mental health services for Norfolk and Suffolk.

Of these claims, the organisation settled in 27 cases, with just four mental health trusts nationwide having settled on more occasions.

These 27 settlements resulted in NSFT agreeing to pay out a total of £1,336,418.

The data was obtained by Medical Negligence Assist, a legal firm which represents the victims of medical errors.

The firm submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to NHS Resolution, an arm's length body of the Department of Health and Social Care which resolves disputes on behalf of the NHS.

The research found that the NHS as a whole had paid out £121m in cases related to poor mental health and psychiatry services.

While several mental health trusts paid more damages out, just Essex Partnership University, Mersey Care, Nottinghamshire and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys agreed more settlements than NSFT.

The trust which paid out the largest amount in this period was Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, which paid £7,338,877 in damages across 38 settlements.

A spokeswoman for NSFT said: "Our trust is focussed on minimising any instances where our care doesn't meet the high standards our patients should expect.

"We want to resolve any issues fairly and quickly and to them focus our attention on learning to help us improve the services we provide.

"We are investing resources to learn from all patient experiences such as establishing a new service user and carer council, which will put the voices of our service users, families and carers right at the heart of everything we do."