The Care Quality Commission (CQC) recently shared their reports on two services run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, focusing predominantly on the trust’s long-stay rehabilitation mental health wards.
Following their previous inspections, the CQC once again gave the long-stay rehabilitation wards a ‘requires improvement’ rating, which extends to the criteria of ‘effective and well-led’ services.
Conversely, wards for older people with mental health problems were rated ‘good’ overall, alongside equal commendations for being ‘effective and well-led.’ In terms of being safe, caring and responsive, the wards were also rated ‘good’ which has resulted in South London and Maudsley NHS FT being rated ‘good’ overall.
Commenting on the inspection, Antoinette Smith, CQC deputy director of operations in London, said: “When we inspected these services, we were pleased to see leaders responding to issues and encouraging improvement through equal relationships between staff and people in the service.”
In terms of improvement, Antoinette added: “We found people’s safety on wards for older people was still being affected by gaps in training such as manual handling, physical health checks, and safeguarding.”
The CQC concluded that they will continue to monitor the trust’s services through further inspections “to ensure people are receiving care and support” and that the trust continues to build on the “improvements made so far.”
In related news, we explored the CQC’s rating for maternity services at Chesterfield Royal Hospital which garnered an overall ‘good’ rating following their latest inspection in May.
From a system-wide perspective, we also looked at the CQC’s plans to launch pilots for their new assessment process this year in Birmingham and Solihull and Dorset ICS. The new assessment framework will focus on gathering data and evidence across six key areas to make judgement “more transparent and consistent.”
