16.02.15
Patients removed from mental health hospital after violence concerns
Vulnerable patients are being moved out of a private mental health hospital after it failed to improve on a CQC report that found a “disturbing” number of violent attacks.
A report from the CQC said that Vista Independent Hospital at Winchfield, Hampshire, recorded more than 300 violent incidents in seven months.
One senior nurse told the inspectors: “It doesn’t matter which way you take them down, front-ways or back-ways.”
During the same period, there had been 267 recorded incidents of restraint of patients, including 55 where the individual had been forced to the floor. However, knowledge of approved techniques was limited and less than a third of staff had been trained in floor restraint.
The CQC said police had been involved in 22 incidents. The scandal was uncovered when the watchdog made an unannounced inspection in November.
On 3 February the CQC returned and found that the hospital had failed to make urgent improvements.
A CQC statement following that inspection, said: "We have discussed our findings with the provider and commissioners, and we are now considering whether further enforcement action is appropriate."
Now NHS England has announced that it is moving patients with mental health needs and learning disabilities out of the hospital.
A spokesman for NHS England said: “Vista Healthcare has failed to maintain safe standards of care and treatment for the vulnerable patients in its care. The first priority for all NHS commissioners is to make sure that all patients currently at Vista Healthcare are safe and well cared for.
“Commissioners, working with the CQC, have acted promptly and already begun the process of transferring these patients, some with complex needs, to centres that can provide care to the appropriate standards.”
The number of patients being moved is unclear. Vista, which is part of the Fairhome Care Group that also runs care homes, said that the concerns only relate to one low-security ward, currently accommodating 17 of the 46 patients at the hospital.
The urgency on behalf of NHS England is likely due to the government promise to not let another Winterbourne View scandal happen.
Earlier this month NHE reported that the NAO found that ministers had failed to honour their pledge to move people with learning disabilities out of hospital and into community care.
Just last week NHS England chief Simon Stevens told a committee of MPs that he will close as many as 58 residential hospitals where people with learning disabilities are still being sent to live.
He said: “I am afraid the time has come to say that some of these remaining facilities are going to have to close and care is going to have to be re-provided in a radical way.”
He told the Public Accounts Committee that he also intends to force closure or reform of up to 49 private facilities that provide long-term accommodation for such people as well.
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