Priory treatment left me traumatised, woman says

A woman who was treated at a privately-run mental health unit when she was 16 says the "scary" and "appalling" time she spent there has left her with lasting trauma.

Elle, from Manchester, who was sent to Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal in 2020 during a mental health crisis, said her time there was "so harmful" that it worsened her mental health and left her unable to trust people.

She had been sent to the unit as an NHS-funded patient by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust in 2020, which has more than doubled its spending on private mental health care beds in the last 12 months.

A Priory representative said the "safety and wellbeing" of patients was its "highest priority".

Elle, who is now 20, said she was shocked by hygiene standards at the hospital.

She claimed that there was silverfish - a type of small insect - "literally all over the floor", fleas in the carpets and blood on the walls that remained "for days and weeks".

She also said patients’ bedrooms were locked "the moment we stepped out" and stayed that way all day.

"We were kids," she said.

"All of our privacy and dignity was stripped off us anyways, so why did they need to go the extra mile?"

"There's no way to describe how it was," Elle said.

"It still scares me.

"My parents say all the time: 'We wish there was some way we could've taken you out of there'."

In March 2022, Beth Matthews was also treated at the hospital as an NHS-funded patient, but the 26-year-old health blogger, who had a personality disorder, took her own life while staying at the facility.

At her inquest, jurors concluded that she had been failed by the Priory and the "inadequate care of a highly vulnerable patient" had contributed to her death.

At the time, the Priory said it fully accepted the findings and had taken immediate steps to address the issues, adding: "Although unexpected deaths are extremely rare, we recognise that every loss of life in our care is a tragedy."

Her death came two months after that of Deseree Fitzpatrick.

A coroner said staff observations of 30-year-old Ms Fitzpatrick had been "grossly inadequate" and there had been "a number of failings" in her care, but ruled out a conclusion of neglect.

The Priory said its thoughts remained with Ms Fitzpatrick's family and said improvements had been made in medicines management and observations following her death.

Lawyer Gareth Naylor, who represented Ms Fitzpatrick's family, said he dealt with "dozens of inquest cases every year" and "perhaps 80%" related to private settings funded by the NHS.

"Money is not being spent on the care that these people require," he said.

He said some facilities were understaffed, under-resourced and some employed staff who were "untrained and unqualified".

Dr Nish Mathew, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said there were now fewer than 25,000 NHS mental health care beds across the region, less than half the 50,000 there were in 2001.

He said the current preferred approach was to treat patients in the community instead, but he had concerns about whether that transition had been properly managed.

Care in the community was "not at the place where we want it to be", resulting in the NHS having to pay for private mental health care beds, he said.

The Priory representative said 84% of its services were rated good or better by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which was "above the national average for equivalent services, including those in the NHS".

They said they acknowledged the "cleanliness" of wards was "an important part of providing safe and therapeutic environments" and significant investments had been made in the last five years.

They said since the most recent CQC inspection in 2023, the Priory had introduced a "live" maintenance system to ensure any issues were addressed quickly.

"We aim to support all patients in the least restrictive manner possible," they said.

The Priory also pointed to its most recent CQC report which stated: "Staff were aware of least restrictive practice and applied blanket restrictions on children and young person’s freedom only when this was justified."

To respect the young woman's wish for anonymity, the BBC has agreed to refer to her in this article as Elle.

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