1 February 2023
During a routine inspection
Grove Park is a hospital that has two acute mental health wards for adults of working age and 2 nursing units for older adults with complex needs. We inspected both the hospital and nursing home parts of the service. This report details the findings from the hospital inspection and a separate report details the findings from the nursing home inspection.
This was the first time we rated this service. We rated it as requires improvement because:
- Staff had not carried out a full ligature risk assessment of the mental health unit. This meant that there were potential ligature risks which did not have clear mitigation in place and therefore posed a risk to patient safety.
- There were blanket restrictions in place on the wards. Patients were unable to make hot drinks or snacks without staff support.
- Staff were unaware of the provider’s physical health and wellbeing policy which led to inconsistencies in how often physical health monitoring was being carried out on each of the wards.
- The service had a 37% vacancy rate for nurses and a 45% vacancy rate for healthcare assistants. The service used bank and agency staff to fill any gaps.
- We found gaps in physical health monitoring charts which had not been picked up through the provider’s quality assurance processes.
- The provider did not ensure that their risk register was kept up to date.
- The service did not have an Occupational Therapist and we found instances where patient’s needs had not been assessed.
- Patients told us they had not been involved in their care planning.
- The area where emergency drugs and equipment were stored on Westborne ward was very cluttered and we were concerned this could cause a delay in staff accessing these items in an emergency.
- The provider did not have a clear process in place around the completion of Venous thromboembolism (VTE) assessments.
- Staff did not always ensure capacity assessments were carried out when patients had important decisions to make.
- Staff had not documented whether discussions around consent to informal admission had taken place with patients.
- The provider had improved their mandatory training compliance since their last inspection, however, compliance with some courses was still low.
However:
- The ward environments were pleasant and clean. The wards had enough nurses and doctors. They managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
- Managers ensured that staff received supervision. The ward staff worked closely with those outside the ward who would have a role in providing aftercare.
- Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983.
- Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness and understood the individual needs of patients.