England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has published his latest findings from Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust following an inspection in January.
The Care Quality Commission inspected long stay rehabilitation mental health wards and community mental health services for people with learning disabilities or autism. The CQC has rated both of these services as Good overall.
Inspectors found the community mental health services to be Outstanding for caring domain, but that the safety of the long stay rehabilitation wards required improvement.
The trust remains rated as Good overall, but their rating for well-led has been amended from Outstanding to Good.
The inspection reports including individual services can be found at: http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RX3.
Dr Paul Lelliott, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and CQC lead for mental health), said:
“Some wards now managed by Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust, were previously rated Inadequate, whilst being run by another trust and weren’t included in our comprehensive inspection in 2015."
“Since the trust took over the running of these services within the Vale of York, we have seen significant improvement to patient care, although we believe there is room to improve further. There has not been quite as much progress as we would have liked."
“I am pleased to note that the long stay rehabilitation wards and community mental health services for people with learning disabilities have been rated as Good, although some improvements on safety in the long stay wards are needed. Our inspectors will return to check on the progress of these improvements at a later date.”
CQC’s main findings included:
- Inspectors saw that staff engaged with patients in a caring, compassionate and respectful manner on wards
- Feedback received from patients and carers was positive in relation to the care and treatment they received and they felt involved in care planning.
- The trust worked actively to promote the wellbeing of staff. As a result, the overall sickness rate was low and staff morale was generally high.
- Staff carried out comprehensive assessments of patients’ needs and reviewed their risks regularly.
CQC have told the trust where they must make improvements including:
- The trust must ensure it complies with the Department of Health guidance on mixed sex accommodation with the provision of female lounges. The trust must ensure that they improve the environment to ensure patient dignity and privacy at Cherry Tree house.
- The trust must ensure that each ward has a suicide prevention environmental survey reviewed annually in line with their policy. Staff must be aware of ligature risks and blind spots on the wards and be able to identify how they mitigate these.
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Officer Kerri James by email kerri.james@cqc.org.uk or by phone on 07464 92 9966.
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