Mansfield mental health hospital to exit special measures

St Andrew’s Healthcare in Rainworth, which also supports men with autism and asperger syndrome, was placed in special measures following an inspection in October 2018.

A number of 'serious issues' were identified, including staff not meeting patient's needs.

A comment from the report stated: “Staff did not always respect people’s dignity and privacy or respond promptly to their needs. This included requests to go to the toilet, to use the shower, for food, medicines and for blankets. This resulted in distress and embarrassment for patients."

When inspectors returned in June 2019 they found that, while further work is needed, a number of improvements had been made and the service can now exit special measures.

The hospital is now rated as requires improvement overall and for whether the service being provided is safe and effective.

It is rated as good for whether the service provided is caring, responsive and well-led.

The hospital has been told it must still make a number of improvements, including: ensuring safe environments, ensuring all incidents are recorded and investigated appropriately, and ensure compliance with food hygiene standards.

However, a number of examples of 'outstanding practice' were highlighted, including a patient who held a ‘masterclasses’ for staff and patients to help them understand the needs of patients with autism.

The service also supported one patient to visit his family in Northern Ireland twice, and another went to a concert in London.

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England, and is responsible for inspecting and rating healthcare providers.

Dr Paul Lelliott, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of hospitals and lead for mental health said: "Our return to St Andrew’s Nottinghamshire showed a number of improvements had been made and standards for patients had improved.

“Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, understood patients’ individual needs and supported them to understand and manage their care, treatment or condition. The provider had made significant progress in addressing the issues we found during our previous inspection, and this is why the service can now exit special measures.

“However, our inspection also found further work is needed to ensure people using the service always receive appropriate care and treatment and are protected from the risk of harm.

“Inspectors remained concerned about ligature risks at the service and found that managers did not always ensure environments were safe. Improvements were also needed with regard to seclusion, patient observations and risk management.

“While it was clear much work had been done to drive through improvements at St Andrew’s Nottinghamshire, it is vital that the provider ensures this continues. We are monitoring the service closely and will return to carry out further inspections to check on progress at this hospital.”

A spokeswoman for St Andrews said: “We are pleased the CQC has recognised the progress our Nottinghamshire hospital has made in the four months since its last inspection. Among the findings the CQC rated our services as ‘good’ for being Caring, Responsive and Well-led.

“However, we will continue to work to improve the care we offer, and are constantly reviewing our processes, reporting and governance, as well as ensuring our facilities are as safe and effective as they can be.”