NHS trust still requires improving – watchdog

STEP’ UP FROM FAILING RATING GIVEN IN 2018

IMPROVEMENTS still need to be made to the trust running mental health services.

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust has been rated “requires improvement” after a surprise inspection last summer.

The Care Quality Commission said the trust had failed to make all the changes it was ordered to after it was rated “inadequate” – the lowest grading – in 2018.

The watchdog found that improvements had been made but a number of issues still needed to be fixed.

Issues included staff walking in on patients who were changing without waiting for permission to enter the room, some staff not completing required basic training and patients not always being able to call for help.

The watchdog also found broken windows, dirty and damaged furniture and broken call bells and patient phones in some wards.

However, it did find better leadership, staff feeling happier in their roles and the elimination of mixed-sex dormitories.

Angela Hillery, pictured, chief executive of the trust, told a meeting of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Joint Health Scrutiny committee: “I’m pleased to say as a result of that inspection that we no longer have any core services rated inadequate overall.

“That’s a really important step. It’s not enough, but it is an important step.”

The CQC carried out a focused inspection on three of the service areas which previously had raised the most concerns – two adult mental health services rated inadequate in 2018, and an adult learning disability service that requires improvement.

As a result of the summer inspection, all three are now rated requires improvement.

However, patient safety was still found to be inadequate in one of the mental health services.

Patients did not have access to call alarms, despite there being boxes of unused wrist alarms in one ward. This meant patients would “have to shout to call for urgent attention”.

The trust said it has since made sure all patients on adult mental health wards have access to alarms. Staff had also not completed all the required training – including in basic life support. In one ward, only 38 per cent of staff were up to date on their training.

Training had been suspended because of the pandemic, the trust said.

More than a quarter of the maintenance requests submitted between December 2020 and May 2021 were still outstanding, the CQC reported.

The trust said maintenance is carried out externally and it is working to bring this back under its control.

The trust was told in 2018 to get rid of dormitory accommodation on all its wards.

This had not been achieved by the time of the inspection. It is expected to be completed by 2023.

The trust retained its good rating for caring across the service as a whole, though two complaints were noted.

The watchdog also said two recent safeguarding referrals had been made on one ward following concerns about the behaviour of two members of agency staff.