Watchdog inspects men’s service at St Andrew’s after concerns raised about staffing levels and more

A service at Northampton’s St Andrew’s Hospital was inspected by the care watchdog after it received numerous concerns.

The mental health hospital in Billing Road was subject to an unannounced inspection of the men’s service on October 18, 2022 following concerns about staffing levels, how incidents were managed, the care of a deteriorating patient and the use of restrictive practices.

In a report published on February 24, 2023, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said its rating of the service is unchanged and remains at a ‘requires improvement’ ranking, which refers to the last full inspection of the service from June 2022.

The report says: “This unannounced focused inspection was triggered by the receipt of information which gave us concerns about the safety and quality of services on two wards at the hospital.”

Inspectors found that the night shift “lacked leadership”. They also found that night staff implemented a blanket restriction on hot drinks without “clear rationale”, as well as an incident of a delay in prescribing medication and a “strong smell of drains from the toilets”, despite remedial action from the hospital. Inspectors found four incidents of staff sleeping on duty.

The reports says: “Actual numbers of staff against the planned establishment were not always met at the start of a shift. However vacant shifts were filled with bank and agency staff which brought staffing levels up to safe numbers.

“We found the staffing issue had improved at our last inspection of these services in June 2022, and there was evidence of slow but continued improvement since our last inspection.”

Inspectors spoke to five patients, three of which said they felt safe on the ward. Three patients said they thought there were enough staff, however one patient felt “staff had too much paperwork to do and this meant they could not spend time with them”.

Another patient told inspectors they did not feel safe because “co-patients were all at different levels of wellness and could be unpredictable”.

The report also found that all staff inspectors spoke with knew how to report incidents and record them in the electronic system and compliance with safeguarding training was at 100 percent on one ward and 80 percent on the other. Inspectors said enhanced observations were being carried out and staff managed routine physical healthcare of patients well.

The hospital has been told to strengthen the nighttime leadership, deal with the drain smell and make sure blanket restrictions are properly managed.

In response, a St Andrew’s spokeswoman said: “The CQC inspected two of our wards in our Men’s Service last October following the full inspection last June. The rating of these wards remains unchanged from the full inspection report.

"The CQC has recognised that our quality of care is improving in many areas and we were rated us as good in the caring and responsive categories during the full inspection.

"But we know there is still significant work to be done as we manage the various challenges faced by the mental healthcare sector of which we are an integral part.

"We look forward to working closely with our stakeholders in the East Midlands and the regulator as we continue to make progress on our journey of quality improvement."

Read the full CQC report here.