Improvements needed to prevent suicide by mental health patients in Coventry and Warwickshire - The Coventry Observer

Improvements needed to prevent suicide by mental health patients in Coventry and Warwickshire

Coventry Editorial 18th Jan, 2018   0

HEALTH chiefs are not doing enough to prevent suicide by mental health patients in the district.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) says Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CWPT) needs to make improvements after an inspection found concerns raised during previous checks had not been dealt with.

Locally the trust runs The Caludon Centre at University Hospital Coventry, Parkside House and Swanswell Point along with some 19 other sites.

Inspectors rated the overall service as ‘requiring improvement’ after they again found ‘ligature risks’ – places where patients could hang themselves – on mental health wards. The same risks were flagged up during an inspection in 2016, which trust bosses were told to correct but had failed to do so.




Following the most recent inspection the service was rated as ‘requiring improvement’ in safety, effectiveness, and responsiveness, but received a ‘good’ rating in the caring category.

Inspectors reported long waiting times for children and young people needing mental health services and those waiting to be diagnosed with autism.


They were also ‘seriously concerned’ 600 children and young people across Coventry and Warwickshire were waiting to have the urgency of their cases decided by mental health teams.

Inspectors added staff had not all been provided with specialist training to work on wards with older people and dementia patients, and staff were not monitoring patients’ physical and mental health closely enough. Many had also not been trained in the Mental Health Act, which covers the care and treatment of patients.

But not all reports were bad – inspectors praised the kind caring nature of staff, and that some services went ‘above and beyond’ to meet patients’ needs.

One of the examples was Coventry dental services supporting local homeless people.

A CQC spokesman said: “The oral health education and promotion team provided effective care and treatments to patients in the community setting by visiting schools, rehabilitation centres and voluntary organisations in the community. It also reached out to homeless patients living in Coventry.”

CWPT chief nurse and director of operations Tracey Wrench said some concerns had already been addressed.

She told the Observer: “We are committed to providing safe and effective services to the people of Coventry and Warwickshire. Our staff are working extremely hard and we have taken comprehensive action to reduce the risk posed by both these issues across our estate of more than 60 buildings. These are significant pieces of work requiring extensive investment, and inspectors acknowledged the progress we have made.

“We have addressed those actions requiring an urgent response, and have put in place an action plan to address all the concerns that remained following this latest inspection.”

Public Notices

View and download all of the public notices in the Coventry Observer.

Buy Photos

Buy photos online from the Coventry Observer newspaper.

Advertising

Advertise with the Coventry Observer to reach your audience

Online Editions

Catch up on your local news by reading our e-editions on the Coventry Observer.