Hospital rated ‘inadequate’ following allegations of abuse by staff

The quality and safety regulator has today placed two independent mental health hospitals which both treat NHS service users in special measures, following inspections in February this year.

The news comes amid concerns over the CQC’s decision to stop the majority of face to face inspections during the pandemic. HSJ has asked the CQC if both hospitals have been inspected during the pandemic.

In an inspection report for one of the providers, Broom Hill Hospital near Northampton run by St Matthews Healthcare, the CQC warned staff did not recognise or respond appropriately to abuse or discriminatory practice.

Patients reportedly raised concerns over staff attitudes and behaviour towards them, while two patients claimed they had been physically assaulted by staff.

The 95 bedded hospital  primarily provides long stay or rehabilitation mental health services for adults. However, inspectors found acutely uwell patients had been admitted directly to wards without prior clinical input. 

Broom Hill was previously rated “good” by the CQC in 2017, its downgraded rating comes after a care home run by St Matthews Healthcare, called Hawthorne House, was rated inadequate earlier this month.

Director of nursing and clinical service for St Matthew’s Healthcare, Kelly Mulhern, said “significant improvements” have been made at the hospital since the CQC’s inspection, and that “all conditions and areas of concern had been completed and stood down” by the regulator.

“It was acknowledged by CQC during our meetings that the service is now, in a very different position to what it was when inspected to when the report was published.

“I would like to further hi-light that our five other locations within Northampton are all rated as good with CQC, Broomhill had previously been rated as good and we have every confidence that we will return this service back to a good rating with CQC.”

The second hospital to be rated inadequate by the CQC today was Garrow House, a 12 bedded unit specialising in personality disorder services for women, that is run by charity Turning Point.

Two other hospitals run by the charity are currently rated “outstanding”.

According to the inspection report, the service did not have enough nursing and medical staff who knew the patients well, and there were high levels of unfilled shifts and vacancies. 

Inspectors also raised concern over staff members management of risks to patients, use of blanket restrictions and management of patient safety incidents.

“Staff did not always manage risks to patients well. They did not achieve the right balance between maintaining safety and providing the least restrictive environment possible to facilitate patients’ recovery”

Clare Taylor, director of operations at Turning Point, said the organisation was “dissapointed” by the rating and working with the CQC to address issues.

She added: “We work with very complex individuals at the service and our staff team give expert support, however, we do recognise that difficulties in being able to recruit people with specialist skills in the area has placed pressure on the service.

“We take great pride in the robustness of our governance processes as an organisation and regret that our usual high standards have not been met in this instance. Currently 93 per cent of our registered locations that have been inspected have been rated as either good or outstanding. However, we acknowledge our monitoring processes have not been as effective as they should have been in this”

St Matthew’s Healthcare was approached for comment.