Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys health trust warned over patient safety

A mental health trust has been served with a warning over safety failures following the death of a patient.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) staff visited five wards run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

The acute wards for adults and the psychiatric intensive care unit services were rated "inadequate" for safety as a lack of documentation "put people at direct risk of harm".

The trust said it accepted the findings and "immediate action" had been taken.

There have been previous criticisms of the trust, including claims that vulnerable patients were able to access deliveries of crack cocaine, and it continues to have an overall rating of "requires improvement".

The unannounced visits in January were to three wards at Roseberry Park in Middlesbrough, one at West Park Hospital in Darlington and one at Cross Lane Hospital in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Inspectors found staff were unable to assess and manage patient risks and there were also concerns over leaders failing to provide training.

The report found the wards were "inadequate" when it came to being safe and well led. They were previously rated "good".

"We found these five wards were providing a service where risks were not assessed effectively or managed well enough to keep people safe from harm," the CQC's Brian Cranna said.

"In particular, staff did not fully understand the complex risk assessment process and what was expected of them.

"The lack of robust documentation put people at direct risk of harm, as staff did not have access to the information they needed to provide safe care."

Services will continue to be monitored.

Trust chief executive Brent Kilmurray said it had provided assurances that "effective systems" were in place and £3.6m would be spent on recruiting an extra 80 care staff and installing new technology.

"The report has rightly highlighted issues we had already identified as needing improvement and we were already working to address them," he said.

"A huge amount of work has taken place since the CQC visited our inpatient wards in January and we're continuing to make improvements for the benefit of our patients and staff."

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