Archived: Bovey Tracey Hospital

One patient told us told us that, 'all the staff were so kind'. Another said, 'we receive the best of care here' and 'all the staff are very kind and attentive'. One other patient said, 'staff are all very good' and they also said that when they call for assistance the staff come 'as quickly as they can, there are others here for them to look after as well as me'

We had concerns that privacy, dignity, respect and consent were not always present in some of the practices that we saw. Although patients told us that they were happy with their care we saw that the management and recording of care was poor and disorganised. Patients' assessments of need, their care planning, and their risk assessments did not consider all of their needs. They also often lacked basic information and were not always accurate. Patient care records were also poorly managed and were at times not kept confidential from other people.

We had been told before we visited the hospital that issues with the management of care and medication administration had been identified and dealt with by the hospital management. However during our visit we saw that there were still problems in these areas. The management of medication in the hospital needed to be improved. Where the medication storage was located was not appropriate and mistakes in medication administration continued to happen.

All the food served to the patients was prepared in the hospital. Patients told us how much they enjoyed the food and we saw that there was plenty of choice at each meal time.

All the patients we spoke to during our visit told us they were well cared for by the staff and that they felt safe. Patients told us that they knew how to complain if they were unhappy; we saw patients raising issues verbally with staff.

Bovey Tracey Hospital is an older building dating from 1931. Because of its age, maintenance of the fabric of the building is a challenge for the trust. On the day of our visit we could see that the roof of the building needed urgent maintenance. However we also saw that the patient areas of the building were adequate and the whole hospital was clean and hygienic.