Plymouth Community Healthcare mental health unit rated excellent

The Glenbourne Unit provides inpatient care for people who are suffering an acute mental illness.

The unit also received the maximum of five stars for food hygiene after an inspection by the local authority. This rating of ‘very good’ was given to the unit following an inspection of the level of food hygiene standards met on the wards and of the coffee shop at the unit.

To achieve the Royal College’s AIMS (Accreditation for in patient medical services) organisations are subject to a review visit and judged on the quality of admissions, safety, facilities and therapeutic interventions. It also collects information from patients and carers.

The assessors congratulated the wards on having an abundance of good practice with great cohesion and enthusiasm amongst the staff, a strong and skilled management team with dynamic, motivated and passionate ward managers. They also commented that the environment was clean, fresh and homely.

Glenbourne matron Nicky Arthurs said “Staff should be very proud of receiving the accreditation. It is a testament to the high quality of care our patients receive. It was hard work to pull together all the information needed to get the accreditation but we have learnt a lot during the process.

“Patients come to us when they are acutely unwell and it is very important that the care they receive is of the highest standard. We pride our selves on only giving the best possible care and it is very gratifying to be assessed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists as being assessed as excellent in their accreditation standards.”