The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published a report today on the forensic inpatient and secure wards at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust at its Fromeside site, following a recent inspection.
Fromeside is a medium secure service which cares for people with mental illness or a personality disorder who also have a criminal history, or behaviours that mean they cannot be treated in mainstream mental health services.
CQC carried out an unannounced focused inspection of five medium secure wards at Fromeside in December, after receiving information of concern regarding the quality and safety of the service. These related to how the rights of patients were being respected and whether the service had suitably qualified staff who were able to consistently deliver the specialist care and treatment that patients required.
As this was a focused inspection, CQC only looked at whether the service was safe and effective. Consequently, the service was not re-rated, so the previous rating of Good overall remains. The overall rating for the trust is Requires Improvement.
Inspectors found that the service was providing safe care and that staff managed risk well. Care plans were developed following a comprehensive assessment and patients were given a range of treatments which were suitable to their needs.
However, there were some issues with staff vacancies and with poor communication between medical and nursing staff. In addition, some care plans lacked detail regarding how a patient’s needs were met in their preferred manner. This had been recognised by management though and plans were in place to improve care planning procedures.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on the CQC website here.
Ends
For enquiries about this press release please email regional.engagement@cqc.org.uk.
Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here (Please note: the duty press officer is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters).
For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.