‘Unsafe’ care trust draws criticism from the CQC

The trust had failed to consider safety hazards in its child and adolescent mental health ward

The Care Quality Commission has criticised an NHS trust for unsafe conditions in its child and adolescent mental health ward.

The CQC said Leeds Community Healthcare Trust requires improvement after finding fixtures on the ward that young people could use to “self-harm by hanging”.

Unsuitable premises

The layout of the building made it difficult for staff to see all parts of all wards and despite identifying the premises as unsuitable, the trust had no clear timescale for improving it, the CQC’s report said.

The inspectorate said the trust also needs to improve its adult care services after finding that staffing levels frequently fell below where they should be, leaving staff under pressure.

‘High reliance’ on agency staff

The report said: “Inspectors found a high reliance on bank and agency staff was impacting on the continuity of care and on the workload of the permanent staff that had to support the agency staff.

“A review of staffing rotas for adult community services indicated that actual staff members per shift were sometimes less than the number required or planned for.”

The CQC also found staff had not always recorded people’s risk assessments on the computer system, putting them at risk of unsafe or inappropriate care.

Ellen Armistead, CQC lead for community health services, said: “There were several examples of good practice in services which were really going the extra mile.

“However, we also saw services where more needed to be done to make sure that care and treatment consistently met the required standard.”

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One Response to ‘Unsafe’ care trust draws criticism from the CQC

  1. Gerald April 28, 2015 at 2:15 pm #

    With consistant DEFICIANCIES of this nature a Care Home would have been closed down. why does they appear to be an inconsisist approach. Surely this Trust has far greater resourses than a Care Home and doesn’t even have to make a profit.