Care Quality Commission inspectors have returned to Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust as part of a focused inspection starting on Tuesday 19 January.
The inspection follows the publication of an independent report commissioned by NHS England that highlighted the failure of the trust to investigate and learn from the deaths of people who received care in their learning disability and mental health services.
The team of inspectors will also check on improvements which had been required in some of the trust’s learning disability and forensic services following previous inspections.
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and lead for mental health) said:
“During this inspection we will be looking in particular at the trust’s approach to the investigation of deaths – including how the trust is implementing the action plan which had been required following publication of the independently commissioned report.
“At the time, the trust was criticised for failing to engage properly with families. As part of this inspection we will seek to hear from patients and carers about their involvement in investigations and any communications they have had with the trust since April 2015.
“We will also look at whether Southern Health have made the improvements that we identified in our comprehensive and focussed inspections. This inspection will have a specific focus but we will return at a later date to look at the other services provided by the trust as part of our continuing programme of inspections of all NHS services.”
CQC had previously inspected the trust as part of its comprehensive inspection programme in October 2014; we returned in August 2015 to check on the progress that had been made in making improvements required in some of the trust’s learning disability and forensic services.
This inspection will focus on improvements within mental health and learning disability services, in particular acute mental health inpatient wards, learning Disability units, crisis/community mental health teams and child and adolescent inpatient and secure services.
Reports from this inspection will be published in Spring 2016.
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Manager John Scott on 07789875809. Journalists wishing to speak to the press office outside of office hours can find out how to contact the team here. Please note: the press office is unable to advise members of the public on health or social care matters. For general enquiries, please call 03000 61 61 61.
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Read our reports about Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.