NHS trust given warning after 'concerning' safety inspection of mental health wards

A NHS trust in Cheshire has been given an ‘inadequate’ rating for its mental health wards following concerns over patient and staff safety.

The Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP) was issued with the lowest rating for its acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units following inspections by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) last year.

The regulator inspected three of the trust's wards during visits on November 8, 9, 14, and 15. The wards visited were the Mulberry ward in Macclesfield along with the Brooklands and Lakefield wards at Springview Mental Health Unit on Clatterbridge Health Park in Wirral.

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Inspectors noted there were 'no seclusion rooms' at Macclesfield - rooms used to safely manage patients who are exhibiting 'disturbed' or 'aggressive' behaviour, reports Cheshire Live. Instead staff were forced to use patients' bedrooms or therapy rooms for seclusion, which were branded 'not safe or appropriate environments' by inspectors.

They also found that the seclusion room at the Brooklands ward was 'not fully clean'. Two small brown stains were spotted on the ceiling which inspectors concluded were 'either food or faeces thrown by a patient'.

The marks were highlighted by inspectors to the most senior nurse in charge during their inspection, but upon returning a week later, the stains were still visible.

When patients were placed into seclusion, staff were found to have not recorded key tasks which meant that the required safeguard measures were not being met. Staff were also not categorising incidents of seclusion properly, which led inspectors to note that