Schoen Clinic Newbridge

Updated 1 August 2018

Newbridge House opened in 2009 and is owned by Newbridge House Care Systems Limited.

Newbridge House was acquired by Schoen UK in May 2017.

The unit is an independent hospital providing a specialist eating disorder service for children and young people aged 8-18 years. The service provides care and treatment for both male and female patients, most of whom are funded by the NHS in England or Wales, but the unit can accept privately funded patients from the UK and overseas.

Newbridge House is registered for the following activities:

• assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• diagnostic and screening procedures
• treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Newbridge House provides inpatient treatment for eating disorders and has 28 beds. The hospital also provides outpatient treatment interventions for bulimia, binge eating disorder and other specified feeding or eating disorder. Newbridge House had a registered manager and an accountable officer for controlled drugs.

CQC last inspected Newbridge House in January 2016. It was rated outstanding overall. Good in safe and caring domains and outstanding for effective, responsive and well led.

Updated 1 August 2018

We rated Newbridge House as outstanding because:

• Newbridge House was committed to research and innovation within the eating disorders field. They took part in local, national and international research. Staff published papers, facilitated public health education and continuously evaluated current treatments and piloted new interventions with the aim of developing an evidence base for eating disorder treatment in young people and becoming a centre of research excellence.

• Staff provided high quality treatment and care. Different professionals worked well together to assess and plan for the needs of patients. Staff were skilled and experienced. The provider supported ongoing training to develop specialist skills.

• Staff undertook regular safety checks of the environment, ensuring ligature points and blind spots were kept to a minimum. The building was undergoing a programme of refurbishment and the furniture and fittings were well maintained, comfortable and clean.

• Patients had up to date risk assessments and management plans which covered by physical and mental health needs.

• Patients had up-to-date care plans. These focused-on treatment plans, recovery and rehabilitation. Staff involved patients and their families and or carers in developing care plans, risk assessments and within clinical review meetings. All patients had copies of their care plan.

• Staff had a good understanding of Gillick competence, the Mental Capacity Act and the Mental Health Act. They routinely advised detained patients of their rights under the Mental Health Act.

• Staff worked towards discharge with patients and parents/ carers. The pathway toward discharge was open and clear for patients and their families to understand. They ensured that the patients community teams were kept fully updated of care needs and completed home and school visits prior to discharge. Patients and parents told us this led to a smooth transition back to home life.

• Staff used a wide variety specialist tools to assess the severity of the patients’ eating disorder and measure the outcomes of treatment interventions. They carried out regular clinical audits to monitor the effectiveness of interventions and adapt where necessary.

• Staff provided interventions following national guidance such as Junior MARSIPAN, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance for eating disorders and Autistic Spectrum disorders.

• Newbridge House staff offered second opinion assessments free of charge to ensure the patient could access the most appropriate treatment interventions.

However:

• Not all eligible staff had undertaken the appropriate level of children’s safeguarding training as recommended by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
• Newbridge House had not notified the CQC of all safeguarding alerts. However, the manager had submitted safeguarding alerts to the local authority safeguarding team. We were satisfied that patients were safeguarded by staff raising alerts.
• Staff did not always follow the medicines policy when disposing of medicines.
• One patient told us that agency and bank staff sometimes used their personal mobiles whilst on the unit and they did not have such a good understanding of their support needs around mealtimes.
• Medication charts for three detained patients did not show the Mental Health Act status of patients.

Updated 1 August 2018

Updated 27 April 2016