Psychiatric hospital told it must improve

A psychiatric hospital in Burgess Hill has been told by health regulators that it must improve.

The ruling was made following an inspection at The Priory Hospital by the Care Quality Commission.

Inspectors said they welcomed a number of improvements at the hospital but more were needed.

They said people were exposed to risk of harm and that ‘ward environments were not always safe or well maintained.’

The inspection in August checkedonprogressfollowing an earlier inspection in May when the company that runs the hospital – Partnerships in

Care Limited – was told that it had to make improvements.

The overall rating has now dropped from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement.’

CQC head of hospital inspection Karen BennettWilson said: “We found the hospital had made a number of improvements since our last visit, however, there were still areas where further work was needed.

“Leaders did not always have clear oversight of care in the hospital so they could see where improvements needed to be made and take follow-up action. This was particularly concerning when the service wasn’t able to learn from incidents meaning people were being exposed to the same risk of harm.

“Although patients and carers spoke very highly about the medical team, saying how kind and supportive they were, they also alerted us to some new areas of concern.

“Patients told us that their Section 17 leave had been cancelled at short notice.”

This, she said, allows patients to leave the hospital for short periods of time, and staff ‘did not always document the rationale for the cancellation’.

Mrs Bennett-Wilson added: “We will not hesitate to take action if Priory Hospital Burgess Hill fails to make the necessary improvements.”

A hospital spokesman said: “We have been working hard to make improvements at the hospital. We welcome that the CQC recognise the significant progress that has been made.”

He said: “The hospital is rated ‘Good’ on being Caring, Effective, and Responsive to people’s needs. However, despite considerable investment and effort, some improvements are still works in progress.

“Overall, 89 per cent of Priory Group facilities are rated by our UK regulators as being ‘Good or better’ (or the equivalent in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).

“At Burgess Hill, we have implemented an action plan to raise the hospital to the standard we expect. We are monitoring to ensure that staffingchallengesdonothave a negative impact on patient leave. We have taken steps to improve our recording of risk management, and we are actively exploring options for enhancing the ward environments.”