York mental health trust told to make urgent improvements
The Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust has been rated as ‘requires improvement’.
A hospital trust that provides mental health care for patients across North Yorkshire has been told to make urgent improvements by the health watchdog.
The Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust runs mental health, learning disability and eating disorder services across York and North Yorkshire.
Overall the service has been rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), though the service was rated as ‘good’ in being effective and caring.
Two of the four trust services inspected over summer had worsened since the last inspection.
Trust chief executive Brent Kilmurray said staffing pressures were “particularly acute” in the region.
The CQC carried out an unannounced inspection of forensic inpatient wards due to concerns raised about unsafe staffing and poor culture within the service. It was rated as ‘inadequate’.
Inspectors also visited community mental health services for working age adults (rated ‘requires improvement’), crisis and health based places of safety (rated ‘good’) and community child and adolescent mental health services (rated ‘requires improvement’), at short notice due to concerns about safety and quality.
The trust was issued with a warning notice following the inspection and was told to make urgent improvements.
Inspectors found that not all wards and teams had enough staff who knew patients well and were able to care for them safely. In forensic inpatient services, staffing levels negatively impacted on the quality of care.
In the same service, staff did not always treat patients in a kind, respectful and dignified way and there were high levels of restrictions placed on patients’ freedoms.
Patients were not always appropriately safeguarded from abuse, inspectors said, and there was no trust-wide policy for safeguarding adults.
The trust has been told to improve its approach to equality and diversity as staff with disabilities or from a black and minority ethnic background were more likely to experience harassment, bullying or abuse.
Mr Kilmurray said: “We fully accept that there remains much work to be done and we are already taking the steps necessary to address the issues highlighted in this report.
“The common factor in most of the issues raised by the CQC is staffing pressures. Easing this pressure is our biggest challenge and we are working extremely hard to resolve this. There is an NHS-wide staff shortage, and the problem is particularly acute in this region. This comes at a time when demand for our services is particularly high and we have invested in recruitment for a range of vacancies and new roles to meet demand.”
Mr Kilmurray said the pandemic meant staff absence had been at “an all-time high”.
He added: “Our crisis teams – the first port of call for those in urgent need – have performed particularly well to improve their ratings to ‘good’ in really difficult circumstances.
“That said, we apologise unreservedly for the instances where the high standards we set ourselves have not always been delivered. We are determined to change for the better.
“We are taking the culture issues extremely seriously and have put new management arrangements in place to address this, putting our values of respect, compassion and responsibility at the heart of everything we do, all aimed at making this a great place to work.
“In the meantime, we will work with the CQC to positively ensure that their requirements are met.”