The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken action against a Worcestershire mental health hospital, following an inspection which led to it being rated inadequate and placed in special measures.
CQC inspected Priory Barnt Green, which is run by Priory Healthcare Limited, in June.
The unannounced inspection was undertaken because the service was new, having only secured CQC registration four months earlier. At the time of inspection, it had ten beds for women needing psychiatric intensive care.
The inspection found the service did not protect people from avoidable harm because it lacked enough staff with the right training to ensure their safety. This situation was worsened because managers at the service did not have enough oversight of the service to help it address its problems.
Following the inspection, CQC rated the hospital inadequate overall and for being safe, effective and well-led. It also rated it requires improvement for being caring and responsive to people’s needs and placed it in special measures.
Priory Healthcare Limited decided to close the ward and transfer all the hospital’s patients to other services following the inspection. Shortly after this, CQC prevented the hospital from admitting new people.
Should the Priory wish to admit patients to its Barnt Green hospital again, it will need to assure CQC it can provide safe care and treatment. In this event, the hospital would also be subject to close CQC monitoring.
Jenny Wilkes, CQC head of inspection for mental health and community health services, said:
“Our inspection of Priory Barnt Green found the service was not ensuring people’s safety.
“It had a shortage of staff with the right training and experience to ensure people received the safe care they have a right to expect. People also reported that some interactions they had with staff were unsupportive and lacked respect.
“Staff failed to undertake adequate observations of people, including to ensure they had not come to physical harm following rapid tranquilisation and as part of routine checks to monitor people at risk of self-harming.
“Behind this was as lack of oversight from leaders whose understanding of the service was impeded by a failure to capture information following patient safety incidents. This insight should have been used to help the service improve the quality and safety of care it provided for people.
“No one is currently using the service and we will not give approval for it to admit patients again unless we are assured it can take all reasonable steps to manage risks to their health and wellbeing.”
CQC’s inspection of Priory Barnt Green found poor staffing arrangements put people at risk of harm.
The service was dependent on agency workers who did not always have the right training and experience to ensure people received high-quality care. Agency staff also could not readily access people’s medical records, undermining their ability to meet people’s needs.
Inspectors identified instances where staff were sleeping while they should have been observing patients, and there was an instance of a person self-harming while a member of staff was asleep on duty.
However, ward environments were clean and well-maintained, and staff were also taking appropriate steps to protect people from COVID-19.
Inspectors also found restrictive practices were only used when all attempts to reduce people’s distress had been exhausted.
The Priory decided to work with healthcare commissioners to transfer all the service’s patients to other services and close the ward. Following the inspection, the CQC used its enforcement powers to stop the hospital admitting new patients without its permission.
It remains in special measures and will not be allowed to admit people again unless CQC is assured it can meet their needs.
Full details of the inspection are given in the report published on our website.
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