Campaigners lobbying for a public inquiry into the region's failing mental health trust are preparing to take their fight to the capital.

Following the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust being placed into special measures earlier this year, campaigners have been leading calls for a public inquiry into the situation.

On Tuesday, the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk will take these calls directly to parliament with a demonstration in the capital.

Members of the campaign will first stage a demonstration at Norwich station before taking the train to London to protest in Westminster.

The campaigners, including the bereaved parents of people who died while receiving mental health treatment, will then meet with MPs and ministers to discuss the situation in further depth.

A campaign spokesman said: "We are taking our call for an independent statutory public inquiry to parliament to get our Norfolk and Suffolk MPs to support us so we can establish how many people have lost their lives and why the wider system has failed the citizens of Norfolk and Suffolk by allowing this unsafe situation to go on for so many years.

"We want to understand the scale of the problem and the root of it so the same mistakes do not continue to be made and more lives are not needlessly lost.

"We are also demanding NSFT be placed in special administration and replaced with a well-funded and functioning mental health organisation."

Following the Care Quality Commission inspection result being published in April, bosses at NSFT insisted action is being taken to address the concerns.

Zoe Billingham, NSFT's chairman, said the results of the inspection had provided a wake-up call for the Trust - and a "launch pad" for it to improve services for the region.

Eastern Daily Press: Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich SouthClive Lewis, MP for Norwich South (Image: Archant)

In parliament last week, Norwich South's Labour MP Clive Lewis called on health secretary Sajid Javid to meet the campaigners during their visit on Tuesday.

He described the situation at the Trust as "eight years of systemic and catastrophic failings".

The health secretary said in response that Gillian Keegan, the government's mental health minister, would meet the campaigners in his place.