Derbyshire mental health unit makes changes after patient’s death and critical report

Field House in Chesterfield Road, Shirland, has been rated ‘inadequate’ and placed into special mesaures by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following a visit in August.

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According to the CQC, a patient died ‘following use of a ligature’ shortly after the inspection.

Dr Kevin Cleary, the CQC’s mental health lead, said: “There were issues with observation of patients, a lack of cleanliness at the service and with staffing.

“There were insufficient nursing staff and they did not have the skills and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm.

“Bank and agency staff were not always familiar with the observation policy.

“It was also worrying that not all staff received a Covid-19 risk assessment, infection control standards were poor, and hand sanitiser was not available in the service’s apartments.”

The CQC said a follow-up inspection last week showed ‘areas of improvement’ but added that it would continue to monitor the service.

A spokesperson for Elysium – which runs the women’s unit – said: “The safety and well-being of our patients is always our highest priority and so we welcome the scrutiny that comes from our partners at the CQC.

“We fully accept the findings of this report and we have already implemented a significant quality improvement action plan to ensure that we swiftly achieve all of the recommendations.

“This plan includes re-enforcing and further developing our specialist training, enhanced risk assessment training, demonstrable increase in staffing, the completion of environmental improvements and enhanced Covid management measures, all of which compliment systems that were already in place.

“In addition, we are strengthening the leadership at the service and all improvement work is now being led by the regional director.

“The CQC have acknowledged significant improvement in the service on their recent visit.”

The August inspection came after the unit was ordered to make improvements in January 2019.

Field House is a specialist service for women with a mental illness.

To read the CQC’s full report, visit https://bit.ly/2Tt51Dn

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