Failings Found After Inspection of Mental Health Services in Leicestershire

March 15, 2019

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Following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspection reported last month by the Leicester Mercury, it has been found that the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust has been rated as “needing improvement”. Five services were inspected by the CQC in November and December 2018 with the following ratings:

Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units – Inadequate
Community-based mental health services for older people – Good
Specialist community mental health services for children and young people – Requires Improvement
Long stay/rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults – Inadequate
Wards for people with a learning disability or autism – Requires Improvement

The CQC concluded that the Trust must make a number of improvements following its latest report. The Trust has said it is taking “urgent action” to address them. Four out of the five services inspected were found to have below expectation access to care and treatment. Patients were even found to have been admitted to beds out of the area because there were none available locally.

The inspectors identified “concerning” long waiting times in community mental health services for young people and children, and that patients lacked treatment “when they needed it most”. Three of the services inspected were found to be understaffed, and patient dignity and privacy was “compromised” in some of the services. The inspection found that there was a limited approach to patient involvement across the Trust.

The Trust’s leadership team was heavily criticised throughout the report; it was described as responding “slowly to issues of risk and performance that affected safe delivery of patient care”. The Chief Executive of the Trust, Dr Peter Miller, announced that he plans to retire from his post and said:

“The CQC report shows that we still have to work to do to get the fundamentals right, first time, every time, and that we need to increase the pace of improvement…..

I am sorry that some of the care that we have provided has not been of the standard that we would all want.”

The report however praised staff working at The Trust for their caring nature.

Moosa-Duke Solicitors are specialists in clinical negligence law and have experience in advising clients who have suffered negligence within mental health care. If you believe that you or a family member have been a victim of negligence, due to private or NHS treatment, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0116 254 7456 to discuss your concerns.