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Southern Health: Trust boss says 'more learning to do'

Google Tatchbury Mount Southern Health HQ in CalmoreGoogle
Southern Health, which has its headquarters in Calmore, has seen its CQC rating fall to requires improvement

The boss of a scandal-hit NHS trust has told a select committee there is "more learning to do" following the results of a disappointing inspection.

Southern Health's Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating fell from good to requires improvement in February.

The CQC noted issues with an "unsafe environment" in acute mental health wards.

Trust chief executive Ron Shields told Hampshire County Council staffing issues still posed a problem.

The report also said there were unclear pathways for discharging patients and breaches of same-sex ward regulations, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust Ron ShieldsSouthern Health NHS Foundation Trust
Southern Health's chief executive Ron Shields said staffing was a key issue at the trust

Mr Shields told councillors: "We've been balancing the impact of Covid-19 while trying to keep all our wards operational.

"That is why we had some privacy breaches around same-sex wards but this has now been rectified.

"We have covered plenty of issues and made sufficient progress already, but have to remain vigilant."

Mr Shields also said, despite staffing shortages, acute wards did have enough "suitably skilled and experienced staff" to get by.

He added: "Staffing is the key issue. In some areas, staffing was at its absolute minimum level, and remains the biggest challenge we currently have."

(l-r) David West, Robert Small, Marion Munns, Edward Hartley, and Jo Deering
(L-R) David West, Robert Small, Marion Munns, Edward Hartley and Jo Deering died in the care of Southern Health Foundation Trust

Committee members said they were pleased with the progress the trust was making.

Last September, an inquiry found the trust, which provides mental health, physical health and learning disability services across Hampshire, needed "continuing reform" after past failures.

The independent review was held after failures were found to have led to five vulnerable patients dying between 2011 and 2015.

The first in a series of reports into Southern Health in 2015 revealed the trust failed to investigate hundreds of deaths. The scandal led to the chief executive and chairman at the time resigning.

It was also fined £2m due to failings in relation to two patients, including 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk who drowned in a bath following an epileptic seizure, while under the care of the trust in Oxfordshire - an area previously covered by the trust.

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