The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today published a report on Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The trust has been rated Requires Improvement following an inspection in May and June 2019.
Between 21 May 2019 to 25 June CQC inspected four of the trust’s core services. Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units, wards for older people with mental health problems, wards for people with learning disability or autism and mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety. CQC also looked specifically at management and leadership to answer the key question - Is the trust well led?
The inspection marks the third time the trust has been rated Requires Improvement overall. Inspectors reported little progress had been made in the services they visited. Inspectors also reported not all governance systems were effective in assessing, monitoring and improving care and treatment. A robust system was not in place to enable the board to have clear oversight of quantity and quality of supervision. The trust’s health-based places of safety did not have always have dedicated staffing to observe patients using the service.
However, improvements were seen in the safety of wards for older people with mental health problems. There was enough qualified and experienced nursing and medical staff to keep patients safe, and the ward had shown a good history of safety. Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units also showed improvement. Inspectors saw there was a strong skill mix of staff to treat patients and care was recovery focused. Both services were rated Requires Improvement overall.
You can read the reports in full when they are published on CQC’s website at www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RNN
Jenny Wilkes, Head of Hospital Inspection, said:
“It’s positive to see some improvements being made at the trust and staff continue to treat patients with kindness and compassion. However, this is the third time we have rated the trust Requires Improvement overall.
“At our previous inspection the trust was undergoing major change, due to the merger with North Cumbria University NHS Trust, and continues to do so. We have made our findings very clear to the trust, and we continue to keep the trust under observation and will return again to see whether improvements have been made and sustained”
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