Mental health hospital told to improve or 'action will be taken'

A hospital in West Sussex which provides care for people with mental illnesses has been told it must urgently improve or action will be taken.

The Care Quality Commission inspected two wards at The Priory Hospital in Burgess Hill in May, after information about patient safety was reported to CQC.

It told the hospital it must make urgent improvements to the quality of its female specialist personality disorder ward (Amy Johnson ward) and the forensic low secure inpatient ward (Michael Shepherd ward).

The report states that wards inspected did not have enough experienced and skilled staff to manage all the risks on the wards.

CQC required the hospital to submit information explaining how it would make immediate improvements. The letter also explained that if the hospital could not provide assurance about how it would make the urgent improvements needed, CQC would take action to ensure that improvements were made. 

Priory Hospital submitted an action plan and has closed two hospital wards, the female psychiatric intensive care and female personality disorder wards, in order to ensure it could staff the two remaining wards safely.

Inspectors did however find that staff provided a range of treatments such as dialectical behavioural therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy suitable to the needs of the patients cared for in the Amy Johnson rehabilitation ward.

They also found that hospital leaders had the 'skills, knowledge and experience' to perform their roles, were visible in the service, and approachable for patients and staff.

A spokesman for the hospital said: “We take the CQC’s findings very seriously, and we have taken a number of measures to address the issues identified by the inspection. We have reviewed our risk assessment procedures using external clinical quality leads, and Priory’s quality team continues to work with the hospital to ensure that everyone at the site follows best practice.

"We have reviewed our governance structure around patient feedback and the way we record incidents. We hold monthly lessons learned meetings, and disseminate their findings to all staff. IT issues at the time of the inspection have subsequently been resolved.

"Because of recent staffing pressures caused by the shortage of registered nurses in the region, we have had to react quickly and take the regrettable decision to close two of the hospital wards, including the Amy Johnson ward.

"We took this step to ensure our patients continue to receive the high quality care they deserve in a safe environment. We continue to invest heavily in efforts to attract appropriate nursing and other clinical staff, and we are confident the hospital will soon regain its ‘good’ CQC rating.”