Staff watching suicide-risk patients ‘slept while on shift’

STAFF at a mental health ward were caught sleeping while monitoring patients who were on suicide watch, whistleblowers have claimed.

Sources alleged there were also cases of patient-on-patient abuse at Hill Crest Ward in Redditch, Worcs. One patient had his jaw broken by another, while an elderly woman was punched in the face by a male patient, sources told the BBC.

Sources shared images of staff apparently asleep in an office with the BBC and said one nurse fell asleep twice while on Level 3 observation – when staff must watch a patient at all times as they are at risk of taking their own life.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust runs the ward. It said none of the reports took place after it improved services about a month ago.

In one instance, staff reportedly locked themselves in an office as a patient ran around holding boiled water. Unison, which represents workers at the trust, said staff felt unsafe and ill-equipped to do the job.

After the boiling water incident, the Care Quality Commission carried out an unannounced inspection in July. Its findings are yet to be published.

A spokesman for the trust said it is aware of incidents “where the behaviours and standards of professionalism had fallen significantly short of what we would expect”. They said changes made in recent months are having a “positive impact on the culture within the unit, and on the treatment, safety and overall experience of our patients and staff ”.