Trust’s mental health wards rated as Good by CQC

Mental health wards at the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as Good overall by Care Quality Commission inspectors.

The wards were rated Good for being effective, caring, responsive and well-led. They were rated Requires Improvement for being safe. This follows an inspection in October 2016 when CQC inspectors visited the trust’s acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units.

The inspected wards are situated mainly in London but one of those inspected is in Milton Keynes. The wards inspected in London are in Brent, Kensington, Westminster, Harrow and Hillingdon.

When CQC last inspected the wards in February 2015, we had rated them as inadequate. Since then, the trust had taken many steps to improve patient care 2015, including:

• Patients told inspectors that they felt safe on the wards which were clean and well maintained
• Improved management of ligature risks
• Staff were more aware of blind spots where they might not be able to observe patients who might be at risk
• Measures had been put in place to reduce the number of patients absconding
• Staff had completed the necessary restraint training
• Sufficient staff on duty to meet patient needs
• Bed management had improved considerably and was now closely monitored
• Patients were now able to make phone calls in private
• Multidisciplinary teams were consistently and proactively involved in patient care, support and treatment.

However, there are areas where the trust must take action to improve further.

It must take steps to reduce the number of incidents of prone restraint.

It must ensure that risks to patients are identified and the risk management plans must contain sufficient information on the risk and how the risks are managed.

The trust must ensure that all records of physical restraint of patients comply with the policies and procedures of the provider.

Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector (Mental Health) said: “It is good to see that there has been such a marked improvement to the standard of care given to patients on Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust’s acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units. It is a testament to the hard work of staff that they have managed to move the rating of the service from Inadequate to Good.

“We expect that the trust will continue to work to improve the safety and quality of care further.”

Ends

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