The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an unannounced inspection of Bootham Park Hospital on 9 and 10 September 2015; a psychiatric unit in York with 29 inpatient beds, run by Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust. The inspection was in response to concerns inspectors had with the delay in the trust implementing CQC’s recommendations from an earlier inspection.
Specifically, CQC’s inspectors were concerned about the risk of suicide or serious harm to patients because the trust was not able to remove all of the potential ligature points within the building because of its listed status. Also, some of the rooms that had fixtures and fittings, which could be used as ligature points, were found to be unlocked which meant that patients could have access to them.
As well as this, patients were at risk of serious scalding from high water temperatures – maintenance had not been carried out to guarantee their safety.
Elsewhere, CQC’s inspectors found that nursing staff were unable to observe all parts of the wards due to the layout of the building and inspectors found a lack of call alarms for patients, insufficient staffing numbers, and poor hygiene and infection control in two of the hospital’s wards.
In response to these concerns highlighted by CQC following its inspection, CQC formally requested the trust (working with its local partners) to move the patients to alternative services within the trust and to relocate all clinical services that are currently provided by Bootham Park Hospital by midnight tonight (30 September 2015).
CQC understands that the trust has already safely moved all of its patients who were being cared for in Ward 6 (one of the adult inpatient wards) to another part of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust last week (24 September).
These actions have been, and are being taken, in the best interests of the patients who were receiving care at the unit, so that they can receive, safe and high-quality care in appropriate settings.
CQC will publish the full report from its inspection in due course.