CQC warns Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust that it must improve the care it provides to patients at the Campbell Centre, Milton Keynes

19 March 2014

CQC warns Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust that it must improve the care it provides to patients at the Campbell Centre, Milton Keynes

Trust also warned that it must improve the care provided to residents at 3 Beatrice Place, a nursing home in Kensington

The Care Quality Commission has formally warned Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust that it must improve the care it provides to patients at the Campbell Centre, Milton Keynes, and 3 Beatrice Place, Kensington.

The Campbell Centre, in Standing Way, Eaglestone, was inspected unannounced in November 2013 to follow up on concerns identified at a previous inspection and concerns raised since that inspection.

Inspectors found that, while the trust had put improvement plans in place, the service – a 38-bedded inpatient unit providing acute mental health services – was failing to meet all eight standards checked. On three of these – care and welfare of people, safety and suitability of premises, and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision – warning notices were issued to the trust.

Among CQC’s findings at the Campbell Centre:

• Care plans and risk assessments were not always updated placing people at risk of harm.
• Processes in place to protect patients from the risks associated with the management of medicines and safeguarding were not always followed.
• Governance and quality monitoring of the service was in need of improvement.
• There was a heavy reliance on agency staff which impacted on the continuity of care and welfare of patients.

The trust has also been warned that it must improve the care it provides to people living in 3 Beatrice Place, in Marloes Road, Kensington.

At that location, inspected unannounced in December 2013, CQC found that:

• Care delivered was not appropriately recorded or reviewed, and care arrangements focused on the delivery of personal interventions as opposed to recovery and wellbeing.
• The provider had failed to respond appropriately to an allegation of abuse.
• Half the clinical staff had not been trained to restrain people appropriately and safely. This put people at risk of harm. Strategies to de-escalate potentially violent situations were inadequate.
• While the provider had implemented systems to improve the service, these were not sufficiently robust to protect people from the risk of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment.

Matthew Trainer, Regional Director of CQC in London, said:

“Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust has been failing to meet the required standard in these services for some time. These are complex services that provide care to vulnerable people and the improvement plans that the trust has in place need to start showing hard results.

“At the Campbell Centre, we found that processes designed to protect people from harm were not always being followed. Patients’ care plans had not been updated to reflect incidents or the current individual needs of the person concerned – and we know that this can result in unsafe or inappropriate care.

“At Beatrice Place, we found that people were at risk of being restrained inappropriately, and that the provider had failed to respond in the right way to an allegation of abuse.

“People are entitled to be treated and cared for in services which are safe, effective, caring, well run, and responsive to their needs. We will return to both the Campbell Centre and Beatrice Place shortly to check whether the required improvements have been made and whether we need to take further action - and will report further in due course.”

ENDS

For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9239 or out of hours on 07917 232143.

NOTES TO EDITORS

CQC has published full reports from both inspections on its website:

Campbell Centre

3 Beatrice Place

Inspectors found that Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust was failing to meet the eight standards checked on this inspection of the Campbell Centre:

• Respecting and involving people who use services
• Consent to care and treatment
• Care and welfare of people who use services
• Safeguarding people who use services from abuse
• Management of medicines
• Safety and suitability of premises
• Staffing
• Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision

Inspectors found that Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust was failing to meet three of the four standards checked on this inspection of 3 Beatrice Place:

• Care and welfare of people who use services
• Safeguarding people who use services from abuse
• Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust was meeting one standard at 3 Beatrice Place:

• Respecting and involving people who use services