Women in psychiatric unit ‘feared for sexual safety’

Women in a newly opened psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) had concerns for their sexual safety, a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report has revealed.

Inspectors found women in the PICU at Cygnet Health Care’s Godden Green Hospital, in Kent, were afraid to shower because male staff did not always knock before entering bedrooms and staff entered bathrooms without permission. Patients were often looked after by male staff despite having asked for a female staff member and, in some cases, had an all-male care team.

Most patients the inspectors spoke to had concerns about their sexual safety.

The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection of the PICU in October, following concerns raised by members of the public and to check concerns identified in an earlier inspection of the hospital’s child and adolescent mental health services were not organisational. 

The PICU opened in November 2019. Since the summer, Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust has commissioned some of the beds, but HSJ understands it stopped admissions for a time to review the care being provided. 

Inspectors found records referred to PICU patients as “difficult” and “troublemakers” and warned a ”culture of negativity towards patients had developed among some staff”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 4 December 2020