England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has placed Mundesley Hospital into special measures after a Care Quality Commission inspection resulted in it receiving an overall rating of Inadequate.
An inspection was carried out in at the independent mental health hospital in North Norfolk in September 2016 where a number of concerns were found.
CQC inspectors found the hospital, which provides private mental health care for up to 27 adults who require assessment and treatment in an inpatient setting, needed to make a number of improvements to ensure it was consistently delivering care which was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
The hospital was judged as Inadequate for being safe and well-led, Requires Improvement for being effective and Good for being caring and responsive.
CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and lead for mental health), Dr Paul Lelliott, said:
“We found a number of serious problems when we inspected the services run by Mundesley Hospital and have subsequently placed the service into special measures.
“All of the care plans examined lacked detail, staff did not always ensure that patients were aware of their rights and not all staff had completed mandatory training required to do their jobs correctly and effectively.
“The hospital did not follow their policies and procedures regarding incident management. For example, inspectors saw examples of serious incidents that had occurred, none of which had been reported to CQC.
“Individual patient freedom was restricted due to the layout of the building and the need for staff to have to escort patients. The hospital had not reviewed their environmental ligature risk assessments since the hospital began admitting patients.
“We were concerned that the monitoring and recording of rapid tranquillisation was incomplete and nurses did not consistently monitor the physical health of patients who received this.
“We have maintained close contact with the service and partner agencies since the inspection and will undertake further inspections, including unannounced visits to check that the necessary improvements have been made.”
The inspection highlighted a number of concerns and areas where the hospital must improve, including:
- The provider must ensure that all staff are up to date with mandatory training, which includes the safeguarding of adults and children; the Mental Health Act (1983) and the Mental Capacity Act (2005).
- All qualified staff must receive immediate life support training.
- Incident forms must be completed in full and signed off by a senior manager.
- Restraint forms and rapid tranquillisation forms must be fully completed as necessary.
- The provider must ensure there are appropriate systems in place to learn from incidents and share that learning with all staff.
- All notifiable incidents must be sent to the CQC in a timely manner.
- The provider must complete an environmental risk assessment that addresses ligature and other risks. This should be updated regularly and identified risks mitigated.
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