Mental health hospital closed after CCTV exposed staff being abusive towards patients

A mental health hospital in Staffordshire has closed after a report found examples of unprofessional and abusive staff behaviour.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report published on Wednesday (August 11) said there had been multiple examples where staff at Eldertree Lodge pulled or dragged a patient in an attempt to move them to the ward seclusion room.

The 18-page report stated: "Closed circuit television camera footage showed staff ill-treatment and abuse of patients."

It included two incidents caught on CCTV which showed doors being slammed or forced shut on a patient.

The report was written after an unannounced inspection of the site on May 20 2021 and a follow-up visit on June 3 specifically to review CCTV footage.

The CQC closed the hospital in June after it said people using the service were at sustained risk of harm.

A previous inspection in March had rated the unit as inadequate, and the latest report found failings had not been addressed and people continued to receive unsafe care.

The CQC Deputy Chief Inspector, Debbie Ivanova, said after the first inspection it had "supported Coveberry Limited to help it improve the care it provided its patients by identifying areas it urgently needed to address."

However she said "disappointingly, progress was not made" as they found that people continued to receive unsafe care in a subsequent inspection in May and June.

Debbie also added that "the environment was unhygienic and poorly maintained, as well as blighted by blind spots, which undermined staff observation of patients".

"The lack of progress between the two inspections did not assure us Coveberry could deliver the change it desperately needed to make at Eldertree Lodge. Consequently, we took action to close the hospital."