An NHS trust running crisis mental health services in the North East did not have enough “appropriately trained staff” to keep patients safe, inspectors found.
An Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in June last year found the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust crisis services and “places of safety” were “good” – but that the trust was also in breach of regulations on safe staffing and governance processes. The trust runs services across County Durham, as well as in Teesside and parts of North Yorkshire.
In response, trust chief executive Brent Kilmartin said he was pleased to have retained a “good” rating while “significant progress” had also been made since the inspection last summer.
The inspection visit took place, the CQC said, “due to concerns received from people using the service”. Inspectors found issues with staffing and training.
In the report, the inspection team wrote: “The services did not always have enough staff to keep people safe from avoidable harm. The trust told us that they had no instances where an appointment had been cancelled by the trust but some staff told us that this did happen when they were short staffed and phone calls were done instead of home visits.”
They added: “There was not always enough staff with the right training. The trust had low levels of staffing in some teams and had business continuity plans in place.”
The inspectors found the Durham and Darlington crisis team was among the worst affected in terms of staffing, with the most shifts going unfilled. Meanwhile, the CQC team highlighted that “some external partners felt the trust did not communicate well with them”.
But the inspectors also praised some services, pointing to feedback which showed “people felt staff were kind, caring, respectful and interested in their wellbeing.”
The CQC team also acknowledged significant progress in some areas over the last year. The NHS organisation has previously been criticised for the speed at which serious incidents were investigated.
CQC inspectors said: “The trust has worked at pace to reduce their outstanding serious incident reviews and by June 2024, the backlog of serious incident reviews had been fully investigated and the trust had a sustainability plan in place to ensure the situation did not occur in the future.”
A CQC spokesperson said: “Inspectors visited the service to check on people’s safety, due to concerns CQC had received from people using the service. During the inspection, CQC found breaches of regulation regarding staffing and governance, not enough appropriately trained staff, and some ineffective systems and processes.
“CQC asked the trust to submit an action plan showing what action it is taking in response to these concerns. Since the inspection, CQC has been engaging with the service to ensure people are receiving safe care.”
The overall CQC rating for the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS trust remains ‘requires improvement’.
Brent Kilmurray, the NHS trust’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased to have retained our ‘good’ rating for our crisis services. This is very much down to our committed and hardworking staff, working alongside our community partners, to provide mental health crisis support.
“Notably, people using the service said they felt safe and that staff were kind, caring and respectful. The report also highlighted that patients had appropriate risk assessments in place which were regularly updated and that they, and their carers had been involved in creating them.”
Mr Kilmurray said this came against increased demand and “recruitment challenges” across the NHS.
He added: “We’ve already made significant progress since the inspection last June. The CQC report acknowledges that since then we had put in place robust plans to make the necessary improvements, particularly relating to issues around staffing and acuity. We are committed to learning and continuous improvement, and to providing safe and kind care to our communities.”
In recent years the trust has faced a number of criticisms over failings in mental health care. It came under fire for its management of a range of traumatic cases, including the deaths of three teenage girls who had been inpatients within a handful of months in 2019 and 2020.
Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif, both 17, and Emily Moore, 18, all took their own lives within an eight-month period while under the trust’s care. Last year following CQC prosecutions, the trust was fined £200,000 by magistrates over failings in Christie’s care and that of another woman. The trust was acquitted of charges in Emily’s case.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/watchdog-raises-staffing-concerns-north-30953802
