A private mental healthcare clinic that treated celebrity patients such as Lily Allen, Johnny Depp and Amy Winehouse has been ordered to make improvements amid concerns for the safety of patients at risk of suicide or self-harm.
The Priory hospital, in Roehampton, south-west London, is occupying a Grade II-listed building and is known as Priory Healthcare group’s “first and most well-known hospital”.
The hospital is best known for treating celebrities, particularly for drug addiction, and has been described as the British equivalent of the Betty Ford Clinic in the US.
The list of well-known patients includes songwriter Pete Doherty, former footballer Paul Gascoigne and Lloyds Banking Group chief executive António Horta-Osório.
The Priory treats a wide range of mental health problems including depression, anxiety and addictions. Some of the facilities on offer to private patients include an on-site restaurant, a gym with a personal trainer and housekeeping for a number of the private en-suite rooms.
But the Care Quality Commission (CQC) gave the hospital a rating of “requires improvement” following an inspection. The regulator issued the provider with a warning notice after inspectors rated the hospital as “inadequate” for providing safe care.
But Priory Healthcare, which runs the hospital, said it was “disappointed” the regulator decided to re-inspect its facility in the middle of a £1.2m improvement programme.
The CQC argued that the hospital was not providing safe levels of staffing to meet the needs of their patients.
The inspection report reads: “There remained high vacancy rates for nurses across the hospital and particularly on the eating disorder service. This resulted in high use of bank and agency staff and there were also a significant number of shifts with below safe staffing levels.
“Records indicated that there were more incidents on shifts with insufficient staff on Priory Court, the eating disorders unit for children and adolescents. There had been 95 incidents on Priory Court in the six months prior to the inspection.
“Following the inspection the provider sent us revised figures indicating a higher level of staffing than indicated at the time of the inspection. We undertook enforcement action against the provider, serving a warning notice regarding staffing levels.”
The regulator launched a re-inspection of the premises in October last year after it highlighted concerns during a visit in March 2016.
It said that in addition to concerns about staffing levels, inspectors concluded that the hospital environment, particularly on the acute wards, remained unsafe for patients at risk of suicide or self-harm.
Inspectors rated the trust as “good” for being effective and caring but “requires improvement” on being responsive.
Dr Paul Lelliott, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector for mental health, said: “When we inspected the Priory Hospital in October 2016, we were very concerned about the safety of patients at risk of suicide or self-harm.
“The hospital must ensure it can meet the needs of patients they choose to admit whilst improvements to staffing and the environment take place.
“We did however find some improvements and noted that the provider had implemented a pre-admission risk assessment.
“The wards also provided a comprehensive range of psychological therapies, including dialectical behavioural therapy, mindfulness, and family therapy. Occupational therapists and dietitians facilitated activities and discussion groups.”
Commenting on the inspection, Dr Sylvia Tang, chief executive of Priory Healthcare, said: “Roehampton is a safe hospital providing high quality care and treatment and we remain fully committed to making improvements for the benefit of all of our patients.
“Our £1.2m improvement programme at Roehampton is being led by a new management team and includes trialling a state-of-the-art patient monitoring system.
“It is disappointing that we have been re-inspected part-way through this programme when there were works in progress which have now been completed.
“Similarly, we question CQC’s findings in relation to staffing: our rotas show that appropriate staff-patient ratios have been maintained and, over the last year, we have reduced the vacancy rate for nurses by more than 50%, despite a national shortage of nurses.”
In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.
"Inadequate" celebrity mental health clinic ordered to make improvements
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder