NHS trust rated '˜inadequate' at keeping mental health patients safe

Pic posed by model: Humber NHS Foundation Trust has been criticised for failings in its adult mental health services

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals rated Humber NHS Foundation Trust as “requiring improvement” following the inspection by the Care Quality Commission in April.

The CQC served a warning notice to make sure the trust addressed poor practice over seclusion and long-term segregation, rapid tranquilisation and the inappropriate supervision of patients while opening mail.

The CQC said: “This represented very poor practice, especially as we had previously advised the trust against this practice.”

It said the trust had to ensure staff were trained in immediate life support, should a patient have an adverse reaction to a tranquiliser.

It found understaffing across areas including mental health crisis services, district nursing and community and neighbourhood care teams. There were high vacancy rates, the highest of which, at 28 per cent, was in the Withernsea district nursing team.

In mental health acute wards, patients’ bedrooms were locked and in forensic inpatient and secure wards, patients had “limited access to meaningful activity.”

Only 50 per cent if staff had been trained recently in the Mental Capacity Act.

Dr Paul Lelliott, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “Humber NHS Foundation Trust has a number of issues it has to address. They have been rated as inadequate for safety and a great deal of what we saw demonstrates that the trust had not learnt all the lessons from our last comprehensive inspection.

“The trust must focus on the many areas for improvement. We have received their action plan, which will form the basis and plan for our next follow up inspection when I hope to be able to report improvement.”

Chief executive David Hill said: “We acknowledge that some services fell short of what we aspire to deliver and we knew that we had some of these challenges prior to this inspection. However, the CQC recognised improvement in our children’s and community services and identified areas of notable practice.”

They will be submitting a detailed improvement plan to the CQC in September.