"Inadequate" celebrity mental health clinic ordered to make improvements

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

Worcestershire hospitals trust ordered to urgently improve patient safety

The NHS watchdog has ordered a troubled hospital trust to urgently overhaul patient safety or face sanctions weeks after two patients died after enduring long waits on trolleys in a corridor.

The Care Quality Commission has given Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust six weeks to make significant improvements at the three hospitals it runs in Worcester, Redditch and Kidderminster.

The regulator has served the trust with a section 29A notice, which sets out changes it must make by 10 March or risk penalties such as a special administrator being brought in to start running it.

Caragh Merrick, the trust’s chair, admitted to staff in an email after the CQC’s move that the trust had “lost sight of the basics [of caring for patients]. As staff we must all be held accountable for our actions,” she added.

Previous lapses means that from now action to improve patient safety will be taken from “the ward to the board” in an attempt to “guarantee consistent high professional standards”, said Merrick.

The trust was in the headlines recently when two patients died, reportedly on 1 and 3 January, in the A&E unit at the Worcestershire Royal hospital in Worcester when it was struggling to cope with the sheer number of patients needing care.

In one of the cases, a female patient on an emergency trolley in a corridor within A&E suffered an aneurysm and died later in a resuscitation bay. The second patient died after suffering a cardiac arrest on another A&E trolley within the department after waiting 35 hours for a ward bed elsewhere in the hospital.

The trust was put into special measures in December 2015 after CQC inspectors raised concerns about safety in its A&E, children’s care, and maternity and gynaecology services.

It was embroiled in another controversy last year when CQC staff found that 10,000 patients’ x-rays had not been assessed, which prompted concern that serious illnesses had been missed.

Worcestershire Royal hospital recently became so busy that it had to divert A&E patients to its sister Alexandra hospital in Redditch during the NHS “winter crisis”.

The trust is due to end 2016-17 with a deficit of £37.5m, down significantly on its £59m overspend in 2015-16.

A major consultation to shake up healthcare at the trust’s hospitals is under way.

Worcestershire’s three NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) launched the consultation in January which, if the option proposed was picked, would move many planned operations to the Alexandra, but concentrate most emergency care at the main Worcester hospital.

More day-case and short-stay surgery would go to the county’s smaller Kidderminster hospital.

Worcestershire hospitals trust ordered to urgently improve patient safety

NHS organisations ordered to cease denying couples infertility therapy

The policy to give infertile ladies up to the age of forty with 3 cycles of IVF is broadly ignored in the United kingdom. Photograph: Getty Photos/Science Photograph Library RF

NHS organisations have been advised by the government’s wellness advisers to quit denying childless couples infertility remedy with decisions that devastate people desperate to begin a family members.

The Nationwide Institute for Overall health and Care Excellence (Nice) has criticised GP-led clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England for betraying the NHS’s guiding principle of accessibility to treatment by working a “postcode lottery” on IVF.

NHS bodies in England and Wales are supposed to have been giving 3 cycles of IVF to infertile women up to the age of forty given that 2004, when Wonderful explained people who qualified need to get it.

But the policy is extensively ignored. Nearly 3-quarters (73%) of CCGs do not offer you the full 3 cycles, according to a survey in January of 198 of the 211 CCGs. An audit of CCGs’ policies by the Nationwide Infertility Awareness Campaign (Niac) discovered that 49% only offered one cycle and 24% provided two. Only 24% supplied the advisable 3 cycles, although a handful did not pay for any IVF treatment method at all.

In a new draft high quality normal published on Thursday, Nice reiterated its updated advice of February 2013 that all eligible people with fertility troubles ought to be provided the full treatment and made clear its displeasure at the NHS’s widespread defiance of its suggestions.

Good is annoyed that entry to IVF is very variable regardless of iupdated advice in February 2013.

“Regrettably we know that not all regions are following our advice to the letter. This creates variations in therapy inside of the NHS, which is disappointing and goes towards the fundamental aims of the NHS”, explained Gillian Leng, the watchdog’s deputy chief executive and director of well being and social care. “Infertility is a recognised health care issue that can have an effect on men and women of any age and has a probably devastating effect on people’s lives. It can lead to significant distress, depression and can possibly lead to the breakdown of relationships”, she added. About one particular in seven couples have problems getting a child naturally.

Caroline Dinenage, the MP for Gosport in Hampshire, final week told the Commons that girls in her constituency had been only getting supplied one particular cycle of IVF up to the age of 35. Andrew Lansley, the leader of the house and former overall health secretary, said ministers wanted CCGs to “get complete account” of Nice’s tips.

Nice’s guidelines and high quality specifications are each advisory. Not like other Wonderful pronouncements, they are not necessary across the NHS. Nice explained final 12 months that for the 1st time that ladies aged 41 and 42 should also get for one cycle.

Sarah Norcross, Niac’s co-chair, said Nice’s “strong and clear” message to the NHS ought to “deliver the unfair and unequitable postcode lottery technique to funding to an finish”.

Susan Seenan, chief executive of the patient charity Infertility Network Uk, explained: “Let us not fail to remember that infertility is a medical situation and that folks with a fertility issue have the very same proper to be handled by the NHS as any person else. It is now ten many years given that the guideline was very first published but sadly we are still facing an arbitrary approach to IVF funding close to the country. Commissioners…need to have to phase up, stick to the Nice guideline and permit sufferers to entry the NHS remedy they are entitled to.”

Nice’s high quality common also makes clear that CCGs must pay for girls and men who are about to undergo chemotherapy to have their eggs or sperm frozen, so they can attempt to become a parent following their treatment method, which can decrease or get rid of the capability to reproduce.

It follows a recent court victory for 25-yr-previous Elizabeth Rose, who has a extreme form of Crohn’s ailment, in excess of Thanet CCG in Kent more than its refusal to shell out for her to undergo cryopreservation.

NHS organisations ordered to cease denying couples infertility therapy

Stafford inquest halted as hospital ordered to disclose the reality

An internal report by the hospital stated the treatment method Mr Moore-Robinson received may possibly have been negligent.

Last 12 months the Higher Court quashed the findings of the first inquest and ruled that a new hearing could take place, which began yesterday only to be right away adjourned.

Coroner Catherine Mason explained she was forced to halt proceedings so attempts could be made to trace more feasible witnesses who had come to light.

Ms Mason instructed the believe in to offer a complete record of employees who had been on the rota on April 1 2000.

She explained yesterday that she understood that there had been at least two far more nurses and a doctor working on the shift who had not been contacted.

The coroner informed representatives for the believe in: “I want suitable and open disclosure of any person who was concerned in April 2006. I will make that clear yet again.”

Final evening Mr Moore-Robinson’s father explained: “We had been told a quantity of many years ago by the believe in and we were offered with what we have been advised was full disclosure.

“We are eight many years in now and we are nevertheless currently being told there has not been full disclosure.

“The believe in now wants to go back and do a good deal of soul-looking. They have destroyed our lives and are still continuing to do so.

“We are speechless, we are shocked, entirely shocked.”

Stafford inquest halted as hospital ordered to disclose the reality

Hospitals Ordered To Halt "Extraordinary" Debt Assortment -- For Now

Not-for-profit hospitals have to cease “extraordinary” debt collection except if it can show that a patient does not qualify for monetary assistance.

Nonprofit hospitals across the nation have been waiting for far more than 18 months for the IRS to make a final choice on regulations the agency proposed underneath segment 501(c)3 that would restrict how patient health care debt can be collected.

Strike Debt Rolling Jubilee (Photograph credit score: The All-Nite Photographs)

In excess of the holidays the IRS announced  that although it had not created a choice, hospitals can “rely” on the proposed rules as written—at least until the last regulations are published.

Under the proposed-but-now-enforced 501(c)3 laws, nonprofit hospitals must give sufferers up to 120 days to determine no matter whether they want to apply for fiscal assistance and begin the application procedure. The rules then permit for another 120 days for the patient to fill out an application. Throughout that preliminary time period these hospitals can’t engage in “extraordinary assortment actions.”

In a “Recognize of Reliance” published Dec. thirty, “The Treasury Department and the IRS confirm that tax-exempt organizations may rely on all of the provisions of the two the 2012 and 2013 proposed rules pending the publication of last or short-term regulations or other applicable advice.”

Element of people 2012 proposed laws  deal with debt assortment. The Patient Safety and Cost-effective Care Act requires not-for-revenue hospitals to stick to “reasonable billing and collection needs,” but does not define what qualifies as “reasonable.” The proposed IRS laws that are now in result state that “charitable hospitals are prohibited from engaging in specified assortment techniques (for example, sending a debt to a credit company or garnishing wages) till they make reasonable efforts to figure out whether or not an personal is eligible for support under the hospital’s fiscal support policy.”

Defining ‘extraordinary’

Especially, the regulations prohibit nonprofit hospitals from engaging in “extraordinary collection actions” for up to 120 days following the patient will get his or her very first bill. The laws define “extraordinary” as:

• Reporting a patient’s delinquent debt to a credit score bureau’


• Promoting a patient’s debt to a third celebration


• Placing a lien on a patient’s house


• Foreclosing on a patient’s true house


• Attaching or seizing an a patient’s financial institution account or any other individual property


• Commencing a civil action against a patient


• Leading to a patient’s arrest


• Triggering a patient’s to be topic to a writ of body attachment and,


• Garnishing a patient’s wages.

Not-for-profit hospitals can still engage a third-celebration to collect a patient debt.

Healthcare Providers Reply

Healthcare providers have had ample notice of boost rules and laws regarding health-related debt assortment. More than the past two many years, the IRS and Congress have been focusing on assortment practices.

Yesterday associations representing healthcare companies and debt collectors released suggestions to their respective members defining the best practices for obtaining individuals to pay out their expenses. Healthcare Monetary Management Association (HFMA) and the Association of Credit and Assortment Professionals (ACA Global) published “Best Practices for Resolution Resolution of Medical Accounts,” a concise but thorough stage-by-stage method for collecting patient debt.

The suggestions, which are not mandatory, mirror the IRS proposed regulations, at least as far as the first 120-day window on extraordinary collection actions. In some respects they go even more, emphasizing training of the patient as to his or her monetary obligation and a thorough due diligence process by the supplier and their partners for figuring out if the patient qualifies for fiscal help or other program such as Medicare or Medicaid.

“In most situations, patients who really don’t resolve their accounts promptly are probably dealing with private problems that make it challenging to pay,” writes HFMA CEO Joseph Fifer in a blog publish about the tips. “The greatest practice recommendations help individuals patients know what to expect during what might be a hard time in their lives. They make sure that patients are not bombarded by contacts from providers and account resolution companies at the identical time, and they offer a blueprint for making sure honest therapy for all.”

Evan J. Albright is a contributing editor to insidePatientFinance.com. He lives in Massachusetts. 

Hospitals Ordered To Halt "Extraordinary" Debt Assortment -- For Now