Two deaths at “not fit for purpose” unit spark CQC action

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) staged an unannounced inspection after two deaths at a mental health unit which it had condemned as “not fit for purpose.”

Two earlier CQC inspections – in 2017 and 2018 – had also been prompted by deaths on the same unit.

The CQC visited the Abraham Cowley Unit, which is at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey and run by Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust, on 26 June. Two inpatients died in April and May on an inpatient ward for working age men.

The deaths both involved “ligature harm” and have led to the trust reviewing its ligature minimisation strategy, according to board papers.

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Source: HSJ, 8 July 2020