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Showing results for tags 'Mental health unit'.
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News ArticleThe government is being urged to launch a public inquiry into "systemic failings" at mental health hospitals across England. Leading mental health charity Mind says "immediate political action" is needed as NHS mental health facilities are "at breaking point". Mind claims "patients' human rights are being violated" and "wrongly restrained" across "run-down, understaffed" mental health wards. Its Raise the Standard campaign argues that a "full statutory inquiry" is the "first step" into resolving widespread issues. Dr Sarah Hughes, chief executive of Mind, said: "One case of abuse, neglect or unsafe care is too many, people are suffering because of the shocking state of care in mental health hospitals. "People should go to hospital to get well, not to endure harm. This is wholly unacceptable and must be addressed urgently." Read full story Source: Sky News, 20 June 2023
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News Article
Families legal action against scandal-hit hospitals over ‘systemic abuse’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Dozens of former patients are launching legal action against a group of scandal-hit children’s mental health hospitals after The Independent exposed a culture of “systemic abuse”. More than 30 people, some of who are still children, are taking action after claiming they were mistreated at children’s hospitals run by The Huntercombe Group between 2003 and 2023. Allegations include children being injured during restraint, inappropriate force-feeding and patients being over-medicated. Among the claimants are: A boy who has been left “traumatised” after being “drugged out of his mind” while staying at one of the hospitals. A girl who alleges she was groped by a member of staff and now needs more intensive inpatient care. A woman who says she was “forced to wee in bins” as there were not enough staff to take patients to the toilet. A mother of one claimant told The Independent: “It is diabolical, I hope [the claims] can stop them from doing any more damage because it is just awful. Our beautiful girl has just been so ruined by them.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 18 June 2023 -
News ArticleOne in five cases in which patients attend A&E needing mental healthcare are spending more than 12 hours in the department – at least double the rate of patients with physical health problems. Unpublished internal NHS data seen by HSJ also suggests the proportion of mental health patients suffering long waits in accident and emergency has almost tripled when compared to the situation before the pandemic. According to the data, the proportion of attendances by patients with a mental health problem who waited more than 12 hours in A&E before being admitted or discharged increased from 7% (34,945 breaches) in 2019-20 to 20% (88,250 breaches) in 2022-23. The situation has become so difficult, that some acute trusts are spot purchasing private sector mental health in order to discharge patients. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 June 2023
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News ArticleThe NHS has been criticised for sending vulnerable patients to a children’s hospital despite receiving reports of more than 1,600 “sexual safety incidents” at the 59-bed unit. A series of investigations by The Independent have exposed allegations of systemic abuse across a group of children’s hospitals run by the former Huntercombe Group. The latest revealed that a total of 1,643 “sexual safety incidents” had been reported in four years at its hospital in Maidenhead – accounting for more than half of all sex-related investigations reported in the 209 children’s mental health units across the country since 2019. Despite the majority of these reports being made prior to 2022-23, the NHS did not take any action and only stopped using the hospital, also known as Taplow Manor, this year. Gemma Byrne, head of health policy and campaigns at Mind, said in response to The Independent report on sexual incidents: “These horrific reports reveal the systemic scale of abuse and neglect in inpatient mental health settings. Even when patients bravely came forward to share their stories, some of which took place more than 10 years ago, young people continued to be sent to a unit which was known to have catastrophic failings in physical and sexual safety.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 18 April 2023
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News Article
1,643 ‘sexual safety incidents’ in a single 59-bed children’s unit
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A single children’s mental health hospital with just 59 beds reported more than 1,600 “sexual safety incidents” in four years, shocking NHS figures reveal. Huntercombe Hospital in Maidenhead was responsible for more than half of the sex investigations reported in the 209 children’s mental health units across the country. Despite warnings at a rate of more than one a day to the health service since 2019, no action was taken to stop vulnerable NHS patients being sent to the scandal-hit unit as a result of the 1,643 sexual incident reports. The private unit is now finally due to be closed after an investigation by The Independent revealed allegations of verbal and physical abuse, prompting the NHS to withdraw patients. The hospital since said it plans to reopen as an adult unit. Figures obtained from the NHS show Huntercombe’s Maidenhead unit, Taplow Manor, was behind 57% of the 2,875 reported sexual incidents and assaults reported at England’s child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) over the past four years. Reported incidents can range from sexually inappropriate language to serious sexual assault and rape. Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 April 2023 -
News Article
NHS Trust deaths probe could get full legal powers
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The government is actively considering whether to give full legal powers to an independent inquiry investigating the deaths of mental health patients. Roughly 2,000 deaths at the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) are being examined. The BBC understands Conservative Health Secretary Stephen Barclay is minded to make the inquiry statutory, which would compel witnesses to come forward. Only 11 current and former trust staff have agreed to give live evidence. Melanie Leahy, whose son Matthew died aged 20 while an inpatient at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford, said families were "definitely" a step closer to what they had campaigned for. "We just need it converted [to a statutory inquiry] - it's just delay after delay after delay and we need those powers," she told BBC Essex. Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 April 2023 -
News ArticleThe care watchdog is investigating possible safeguarding failures at an NHS trust after a documentary uncovered figures showing there were 24 alleged rapes and 18 alleged sexual offences in just three years at one of its mental health hospitals. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) told Disability News Service (DNS) that it had suspended the trust’s ratings for wards for people with learning difficulties and autistic people while it carried out checks. The figures were secured by the team behind Locked Away: Our Autism Scandal, a film for Channel 4’s Dispatches, which revealed the poor and inappropriate treatment and abuse experienced by autistic people in mental health units. None of the alleged rapes at Littlebrook Hospital in Dartford, Kent, led to a prosecution, with allegations of 12 rapes and 15 further sexual offences dropped because of “evidential difficulties” and investigations into 12 other alleged rapes and two sexual offences failing to identify a suspect. A CQC spokesperson said: “Sexual offences are a matter for the police in the first instance. “However, we take reports of sexual offences seriously and review them all, and raise these issues directly with the trust. “We do this alongside involvement from police and local authority safeguarding teams’ own investigations and monitor any actions and outcomes taken by the trust to ensure people are kept safe." Read full story Source: 30 March 2023
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Content ArticleAutistic patients trapped in mental health units tell their stories, revealing a system of poor treatment, abuse and long stretches inside with their symptoms only getting worse.
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News ArticleA scandal-hit children’s mental health hospital will close months after an investigation by The Independent uncovered claims of poor care and systemic abuse. Taplow Manor hospital, in Maidenhead, was threatened with closure by the NHS safety watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, only last week if it failed to make improvements following a damning report. Active Care Group, which runs the hospital, confirmed it would close by the end of May, saying a decision by the NHS to stop admitting patients had rendered its “service untenable”. The move comes after an investigation by The Independent and Sky News heard from more than 50 patients who alleged “systemic abuse” by the provider, while Taplow Manor is facing two police probes – one into a patient death and a second into the alleged rape of a child involving staff. Read full story Source: The Independent, 29 March 2023
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News Article
Apologies for 2013 mental health failings over mum
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A son has accepted a settlement and an apology from the north Wales health board nearly 10 years after his mother was a patient in a mental health unit. Jean Graves spent nine weeks at the Hergest unit in Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor in 2013 after struggling with anxiety and depression. Her son David said she was left "severely malnourished" and fell. He previously said his mother - who was 78 when she was treated at the unit - collapsed six times and, over the course of six weeks, lost 25% of her body mass. The health board also apologised for the "distress" the family experienced while seeking answers "over many years" and said it hopes to "learn and improve" from Mr Graves's experience. In a letter to him, executives said: "It is very clear to us that we have failed your mother and that she should have had a better care whilst in our services." It said her records were incomplete or were "amended without proper evidence" and she was placed on a ward with a mix of patients with both psychiatric illness and older organic mental illness, which was not "best practice". Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 March 2023 -
News ArticlePolice are investigating fresh allegations of sexual assault against a child patient by a care worker at a scandal-hit private mental health hospital group. It is the second time reports have been made about a former Huntercombe Group hospital after two care workers were quizzed over the alleged rape of a child at its Taplow Manor Hospital in Maidenhead last year. The latest allegations are from a patient at the group’s Ivetsy Bank Hospital, in Staffordshire, which was rated as inadequate last week. In a statement, Staffordshire Police confirmed it had received a report of sexual assault and said inquiries were ongoing. The news comes as the NHS’s safety watchdog has threatened to close Taplow Manor after hospital leaders failed to make improvements in care. The action comes after joint investigations by The Independent and Sky News found the private hospital had put the safety of young mental health patients at risk, with more than 50 patients and staff members alleging “systemic abuse” and poor care. Read full story Source: The Independent, 24 March 2023
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News ArticleA scandal-hit hospital group has been sanctioned by inspectors after The Independent revealed “systemic abuse” at a string of children’s mental health units. England’s safety watchdog issued an official warning to Ivetsey Bank Hospital in Staffordshire, run by The Huntercombe Group, after an extensive investigation by this newspaper found the private hospital had put the safety of young mental health patients at risk. The Care Quality Commission also downgraded the hospital’s rating to “inadequate”. If improvements are not made in line with the warning notice, the hospital could be forced to close. An inspection was carried out two weeks after The Independent revealed widespread allegations of abuse and excessive restraint across The Huntercombe Group’s hospitals. The investigation revealed the provider, which also runs Taplow Manor children’s hospital in Maidenhead, was facing allegations from more than 50 former patients as well as claims of poor care from staff whistleblowers and dozens of negligence claims. Read full Source: The Independent, 15 March 2023
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News ArticleNearly three-quarters of children detained under the mental health act are girls, a new report has found, amid warnings youngsters face a “postcode lottery” in their wait for treatment. Average waiting times between children being referred to mental health services and starting treatment have increased for the first time since 2017 with the children’s commissioner describing support across the country as “patchy”. In the annual report on children’s mental health services, the watchdog warned that, although the average wait is 40 days, some children are waiting as long as 80 days for treatment after being referred in 2021-22. The analysis, published on International Women’s day, also says young girls represented the highest proportion of children detained under the mental health act last year, highlighting “stark and worrying” gender inequalities. Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 March 2023 Further reading on the hub: Top picks: Women's health inequity
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Content ArticleThis is an annual report by the Children’s Commissioner review in children’s mental health services in England during 2021-22. It considers key trends in children’s access to mental health services and considers the current state of care provided to children who are admitted to inpatient mental health settings.
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News Article
‘Institutionalised’ staff ‘perpetuating long hospital stays’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly half of NHS patients with a learning disability or autism are still being kept inappropriately in hospitals, several years into a key programme to reduce inpatient care, a national review reveals. The newly published review by NHS England suggests 41% of inpatients, assessed over an eight-month period to May 2022, should be receiving care in the community. Reasons given for continued hospital care in the NHSE review included lack of suitable accommodation, with 19% having needs which could be delivered by community services; delays in moving individuals into the community with appropriate aftercare; legal barriers, with one region citing “ongoing concerns for public safety” as a barrier for discharge; and no clear care plans. In some cases, individuals were placed in psychiatric intensive care units on a long-term basis, because “there was nowhere else to go”, while another instance cited a 20-year stay in hospital. Other key themes included concerns about staff culture, particularly “institutionalisation” and suggestions that discharge delays were not being sufficiently addressed. The report adds: “While the process around discharge can be time consuming, staff may perpetuate this by accepting such delays as necessary or inevitable.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 February 2023 -
Content ArticleThis report details the findings of a thematic review of Safe and wellbeing reviews (SWRs) between October 2021 and May 2022. SWRs are undertaken for children, young people and adults that are autistic and/or have a learning disability who are being cared for in a mental health inpatient setting. SWRs are part of the NHS response to the safeguarding adults review concerning the tragic deaths of Joanna, Jon, and Ben at Cawston Park Hospital, who were each detained for a long period of time and did not receive appropriate care.
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Content ArticleThis is a brief summary of a Westminster Hall debate in the House of Commons on the 31 January 2023 concerning the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry.
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News Article
Trust warned by CQC over staff sleeping on duty
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A mental health trust has received a warning from the Care Quality Commission over staff sleeping on duty and other serious concerns. Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust was sent a “letter of intent”, which warns the CQC is considering taking urgent enforcement action, following an unannounced visit in November, according to a board report last week. The trust is already subject to a high-profile inquiry into hundreds of patient deaths. Natalie Hammond, executive nurse, said this would be “a fine tuning of our health roster which will be an early warning system that will determine and flag all staff members that may be at risk of working too much or their hours of working might perform a pattern that means they are at risk more of falling asleep on duty.” She added: “We’ve done learning lessons and videos that link the importance of being fit and alert for work and how when you’re not, what mitigation and what steps you should undertake and what risk there is to patient safety.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 February 2023 -
Content ArticleOn 4 March 2020 an investigation into the death of Yvonne Eaves was opened. The inquest came to a narrative conclusion that "The Deceased suffered from a chronic mental disorder and serious self-neglect. After compulsory admission to hospital under the Mental Health Act there was a gross failure to provide her with basic medical care which contributed to her death and it was possible that if she had received that care and VTE prophylaxis treatment she would not have developed a pulmonary thromboembolism and died."
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News Article
Ministers order ‘rapid review’ into mental health inpatient care in England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Ministers have ordered an inquiry into the quality of care in mental health inpatient units in England after a series of scandals in which vulnerable patients were abused or neglected. Maria Caulfield, the mental health minister, announced the establishment of a “rapid review” in a written ministerial statement in the House of Commons on Monday. The inquiry “is an essential first step in improving safety in mental health inpatient settings”, she said. In recent years, coroners and the Care Quality Commission, the NHS care watchdog, have repeatedly raised concerns about dangerously inadequate care that inpatients have received. It will examine the evidence of “patient safety risks and failures in care” in units that hold and treat patients who have serious conditions including psychosis and personality disorder. It will look in particular at evidence of failings brought forward by patients and their families and how better use of data can help show that care has fallen below acceptable levels. The inquiry will be headed by Dr Geraldine Strathdee, a psychiatrist who used to be NHS England’s national clinical director for mental health. She is likely to look at problems including patients being subjected to controversial restraint techniques, left at risk of being able to take their own lives and segregated from fellow inpatients, and the impact of their experiences on their recovery. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 January 2023 -
Content Article
Ministerial Statement: Mental Health Update (23 January 2023)
Mark Hughes posted an article in Mental health
This is a written statement to the House of Commons by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy), Maria Caulfield MP, on behalf of the UK Government. In this she provides an update on how £150 million of capital investment in NHS mental health urgent and emergency care infrastructure is being used and announces the commencement of a rapid review into patient safety in mental health inpatient settings in England. -
Content ArticleThis prevention of future deaths report looks at the death of Ben King, who died of acute respiratory failure, obesity hypoventilation syndrome and use of sedative medication. Ben had Down's Syndrome and obstructive sleep apnoea and had been detained under the Mental Health Act at Jeesal Cawston Park (JCP) from 2018. Ben’s weight as at June 2019 was recorded at 85.2 kg which had risen to 106 kg by June 2020. He was given the sedative Promethazine after becoming agitated and found unresponsive on 29 July 2020. He died later that day at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
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Content ArticleThis report from Simon Milburn, Area Coroner for the area of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, looks at the death of Jonathan Kingsman, who died of pulmonary thromboembolism and deep vein thrombosis on 1 February 2021. Mr Kingsman had been admitted to Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge under section 2 of the Mental Health Act 1983 on 26 January. It was noted that on admission, Mr Kingsman had not consumed any fluids for several hours. The doctor on call carried out an initial risk assessment for venous thromboembolism (VTE), but as Mr Kingsman's mobility was deemed to 'not have significantly reduced ability', the assessor was directed by the guidance to stop the assessment. It was agreed at the Inquest that Mr Kingsman fell into this category and likewise agreed that throughout his time in hospital that there were no changes to his mobility which would have prompted a renewed risk assessment. However, Mr Kingsman did have other risk factors for VTE, and the coroner raised matters of concern about the risk assessment process as follows: That the risk assessment requires no consideration of risk factors other than mobility unless ‘Step 1’ is passed regardless of the number of other risk factors which may be present and their severity – Mr Kingsman was not obviously at risk of ‘significantly increased immobility compared to his normal state’ but died as a result of a DVT/VTE nonetheless. It is reasonable to expect that others may be in the same position in the future. The risk assessment form contains no guidance on its completion and no definition of certain terms. A copy of the report was sent to The Secretary of State for the Department of Health.
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News Article
Police investigating ‘rape of child’ at scandal-hit mental health hospital
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Police are investigating allegations of rape of a child involving two staff members at a scandal-hit mental health hospital, The Independent can reveal. Thames Valley Police confirmed it has launched an investigation after a report last month of rape made by a former patient of Taplow Manor, a private hospital in Maidenhead, Berkshire, run by The Huntercombe Group. The incident was reported to have taken place in 2019. Mark McGhee, a solicitor for Hutcheon Law, who is representing the family of the patient in a clinical negligence claim, said the allegation had been raised to the police about the patient who was a child and that the allegation involves two staff members at the time. In October, The Independent and Sky News revealed allegations of “systemic abuse” from 20 patients across The Huntercombe Group’s children’s mental health hospitals – Taplow Manor, Ivetsey Bank near Stafford, Watcombe Hall in Torquay, and The Huntercombe Hospital Norwich. Since the report, 30 more patients have come forward with allegations of poor treatment and the provider now also faces nine legal claims from former patients. Thames Valley Police are also investigating an incident involving the death of a child at the Maidenhead hospital in February. The CQC is conducting a separate criminal investigation into the serious incident which resulted in the death of the young person. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 December 2022 -
News Article
Delays to mental health treatment in England ‘putting more children in care’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Increasing numbers of emotionally troubled children have been taken into care while waiting long periods for NHS treatment because their condition deteriorated to the point where their parents could no longer cope with their behaviour, child protection bosses have revealed. Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) president Steve Crocker said that since the pandemic, youngsters with complex emotional needs had become a significant factor in rising child protection referrals. “We are seeing children in the social care system because they have not been supported in the [NHS] mental health system,” he said. Crocker urged ministers to “do better” for children facing “unacceptable” delays in NHS mental health treatment, adding that it was not uncommon for waiting lists to involve waits of over a year. Councils were “filling gaps” in NHS provision but struggling to find placements for children with severe behavioural problems, and when they did, typically paid “untenable” fees of tens of thousands of pounds a week. He accused private children’s residential care providers and their “rapacious” hedge fund backers of “profiteering” from the care crisis, and urged the government to intervene to cap typical profit margins that were currently about 20%. “We do not see how this can be allowed to continue,” he said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 December 2022
