The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has stopped a Worcestershire mental health hospital admitting new patients after rating it inadequate and placing it in special measures.
The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection at Priory Barnt Green, which is run by Priory Healthcare Limited, in June just four months after it secured CQC registration.
At the time of inspection the hospital had 10 beds for women needing psychiatric intensive care.
CQC inspectors found the service did not protect people from avoidable harm because it lacked enough staff with the right training to ensure their safety. This situation was made worse as managers did not have enough oversight to help address problems.
Following the inspection, CQC placed the hospital in special measures and rated it inadequate overall and for being safe, effective and well-led, and as requiring improvement for being caring and responsive to people’s needs.
Priory Healthcare chose to close the ward and transfer all patients to other services following the inspection, and shortly after this the CQC moved barred it from admitting new people.
The regulator added that if Priory Healthcare wanted to admit patients to the hospital again it would need to assure the CQC it can provide safe care and treatment and would be subject to close CQC monitoring.
The hospital remains in special measures and will not be allowed to admit people again unless CQC is assured it can meet their needs, the regulator said.
Staffing arrangements put people at risk
CQC inspectors found the hospital’s staffing arrangements put people at risk as it depended on agency workers who did not always have the right training and experience.
Inspectors also uncovered instances of staff sleeping when they should have been observing patients.
However, wards were clean and well-maintained, staff were protecting people from Covid, and restrictive practices were only used when all attempts to reduce people’s distress had been exhausted.
The Priory worked with healthcare commissioners to transfer all the service’s patients to other services and close the ward.
CQC head of inspection for mental health and community health services Jenny Wilkes said the inspection of Priory Barnt Green found the service was not ensuring people’s safety.
“It had a shortage of staff with the right training and experience to ensure people received the safe care they have a right to expect,” she said.
“People also reported that some interactions they had with staff were unsupportive and lacked respect. Staff failed to undertake adequate observations of people, including to ensure they had not come to physical harm following rapid tranquilisation and as part of routine checks to monitor people at risk of self-harming.
“Behind this was a lack of oversight from leaders whose understanding of the service was impeded by a failure to capture information following patient safety incidents. This insight should have been used to help the service improve the quality and safety of care it provided for people.”
National mental healthcare staff shortage
In response, a hospital spokesperson said: “Prior to the CQC’s visit, we conducted our own inspection and identified issues, particularly around staffing, which were being addressed.
“Unfortunately however, a shortage of mental healthcare staff nationally, and dependency on agency, meant we remained unable to recruit or retain the qualified, permanent staff needed for a patient group with highly complex needs.
“A senior management team was put in place to support the hospital, and we decided to halt admissions and close the hospital, working closely with commissioners to ensure the safe and swift transfer of patients to alternative placements.”
The hospital group added that it took the quality of services extremely seriously with a higher proportion of its sites in England receiving good or outstanding ratings compared to national and independent sector benchmarks.
