Watchdog 'very concerned' about safety of patients at Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust where 3 young people died

A watchdog is "very concerned" about the safety of people using the services of Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust.

The damning report says inspectors found there was not always enough nursing staff and that permanent staff did not feel safe if bank or agency workers were used as they didn't have the relevant training.

It follows an unannounced inspection in September by the Care Quality Commission "due to on-going concerns about the safety of services".

Three young patients died in nine months at Prestwich Hospital, one of the Trust's units.

A campaign group and the families are campaigning for a full investigation into those cases by NHS England.

The CQC's two-day inspection of eight wards across five of the the Trust's seven sites found:

• The service did not always have enough nursing staff, who knew the patients or received basic and essential training to keep patients safe from avoidable harm.
• The environment on Poplar ward (Park House) was not clean on the first day of inspection and space on the ward was limited for patients.
• It was not clear that immediate concerns or learning from incidents was shared across the locations, although local learning and reviews were taking place.
• The wards did not all have up to date and recently reviewed ligature risk assessments. Staff on two wards could not locate the ligature risk assessments at the time of the inspection.

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Source: Greater Manchester News, 26 November 2021