THE Hill Crest Mental Health Ward in Redditch has been rated as inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Following last year’s inspection, the CQC report said the trust did not ensure the environment at Hill Crest was well maintained, that risk assessments were not always created and reviewed in a timely way, and that staff were not confident that concerns raised would be acted on by senior leaders.
However, the report identified that trust staff were correctly trained and supervised and that additional temporary staff could be rostered according to patient needs.
Immediately following the inspection last year, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, which runs the ward, addressed the urgent issues identified during the visit.
Sarah Dugan, chief executive at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, said: “We recognise the standards of care and professionalism at Hill Crest at the time of the inspection last July were not good enough.
“I would like to apologise to the patients and families concerned.
“While the steps we took following the inspection last July addressed the immediate issues raised and helped stabilise the ward, we continue to have some significant staffing challenges which affect our ability to embed and sustain these improvements.
“We are confident the temporary reduction in beds that we agreed last week will help alleviate the pressures on the Hill Crest team.
“We will work with our other inpatient wards and community teams to ensure patients can continue to access the right level of care while our bed numbers at Hill Crest are temporarily reduced.”
Further steps were agreed last week which include temporarily closing the ward to new admissions and reducing the number of beds from 18 to 10 to allow time to focus on improving quality of care and make the best use of the staff available.
Hill Crest is an 18-bed mixed gender ward for adults of working age and supports people who experience acute mental health difficulties, and those who may be detained under the Mental Health Act.
