Psychiatric hospital in Annesley vows to improve after 'Inadequate' rating

The Priory Hospital East Midlands, formerly known as Annesley House, on Mansfield Road, has been branded ‘Inadequate’ after an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The inspectors ruled that the 28-bed private hospital was not safe and not well-led. As a result, they said “urgent enforcement action” would be taken if improvements were not made.

The warning notices related to patients being put at risk and a lack of staff with the relevant skills and competence.

The hospital will be inspected again at the end of the year. If the ‘Inadequate’ rating remains, it could be shut down.

The Priory has been quick to respond and has launched an action plan that has been submitted to the CQC.

A spokesman for the hospital said: “We take the CQC report extremely seriously. We have taken robust action to address all issues raised, and we have made positive changes.

"The action plan focuses on improved care planning and risk management.”

The CQC made an unannounced inspection after “receiving information that gave us concerns about the safety and quality of the service”.

It was said that little progress had been made in some areas at the hospital since its previous inspection last December.

These included staff not following infection prevention measures. Some didn’t even wear their face masks properly, increasing the risk of patients contracting Covid-19.

Some wards were also unclean and not fit for purpose, while food was not labelled appropriately and the physical health of patients was not monitored properly.

Maintenance issues meant that toilets in some of the bedrooms “posed a ligature risk”, while one patient’s shower was leaking into her bedroom.

The CQC report revealed too that the hospital did not always manage the disposal of medicines safely, while managers did not investigate complaints thoroughly.

Also, the service “did not have a good track record on safety”, the CQC report said. Between February and April this year, there had been 707 safety incidents on two of the wards.

However, one of the biggest criticisms concerned staffing levels, with the report revealing there was a 56 per cent vacancy rate for qualified nursing staff at the hospital.

"The service does not have enough staff who know the patients,” the CQC report said.

"It relies heavily on agency staff, who do not always receive basic information to keep patients safe.”

The inspectors discovered that agency staff members had their own WhatsApp group, through which they would often swap shifts among themselves.

Therefore, managers did not always know which agency staff would turn up. Also, they didn’t hold proper profiles of agency staff, including their skills and qualifications.

Furthermore, permanent members of staff told inspectors they “felt stressed and received little support from senior leaders”.

Since the report, the hospital has released a statement, which says: “We have addressed issues around staffing, hygiene and maintenance. We have a new induction process for agency staff.

"A recent review demonstrated a high level of cleanliness, and the management of patient risk has been significantly enhanced.

"Maintenance issues are reviewed daily, and we continue to work closely with external agencies to ensure our improvements are demonstrable, embedded and sustained."