'Urgent enforcement action' threatened at Nottinghamshire mental health trust
The NHS Trust has come under fire at the Nottingham Attacks inquiry
The under-fire healthcare trust being scrutinised at the Nottingham Inquiry for its role in failing to prevent the Nottingham Attacks was threatened with urgent enforcement action by its regulator after an unannounced inspection, it has been revealed.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, which played a key role in the care of triple killer Valdo Calocane before the events of June 13, 2023, was subject to a Care Quality Commission (CQC) visit between January 27 and January 29 this year.
Just two weeks prior, the trust had been told its leadership needed to improve, after staff reported a “blame culture”, racism and harassment when raising concerns to senior leaders and the regulator found the trust had not improved on things it was told to improve last time it was inspected.
The inspection at the end of January took place at Highbury Hospital in Nottingham and Sherwood Oaks Hospital in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire’s two main mental health hospitals.
While the report from the inspection has not yet been published, the trust revealed it had taken place via documents for discussion at a meeting of its board members on Thursday, March 26.
The documents say: “Following the visit, the CQC raised a number of concerns and informed the Trust that it was considering urgent enforcement action under Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act.”
Section 31 of the Health and Social Care Act says that if the CQC believes that, unless they act, any person will or may be at risk of harm, it can vary or remove a condition of an operation or suspend an operation entirely.
The CQC’s concerns related to risk management, including the handling of patient property, incorrect records of what they had in their lockers and a lack of knowledge of how at risk patients were of tying ligatures around their necks.
There were also concerns over “restrictive practices” – putting too much restriction on patients with regard to their freedom – and missing information about patient allergies and in care plans.
The trust said it “acted promptly and comprehensively in response to concerns raised.
Improvements included daily locker checks, training on ligature risk, detailed review of ligature risk, incident data and care plans, “environmental assessment” for at-risk patients and immediate correction of allergy documentation.
The improvements were made with oversight from senior leaders and “strengthened governance” to “ensure immediate improvements,” the document says.
The trust said that after the CQC inspection, the regulator had not taken the threatened action.
The official report from the regulator, with explicit details of what was found and the concerns, is still pending.
Dr Susan Elcock, deputy chief executive and medical director at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, said: “We are committed to providing high quality, effective and safe care to those people who need it most. External inspections are an important way of helping us learn and to make the improvements that are needed.
“Following the CQC inspections of Adult Mental Health inpatient services in January, we acted promptly and comprehensively in response to concerns raised.
“The CQC reviewed our immediate actions and confirmed they were assured by both the pace and robustness of improvements and has taken no further enforcement action.”