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North Staffordshire hospital still ‘inadequate’ after surprise inspection
A private hospital is still rated as ‘inadequate’ after inspectors visited the facility just weeks before it relaunched to offer a new service for patients with brain injuries.
Moorlands Neurological Centre in Cheadle – formerly The Woodhouse Independent Hospital – was operating under its new name at the time of the unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission in December, but was still caring for people with a learning disability or autism.
The Elysium Healthcare operated hospital received an ‘inadequate’ rating back in February 2022 after concerns were raised over patient safety. The latest follow-up inspection had expected to see “significant improvement” – and inspectors’ findings have now been released and seen by StokeonTrentLive.
The report still found issues relating to how safe and well-led the service was and in some cases found that the provider had to dismiss staff as a result of incidents that occurred since the last inspection. It states: “We carried out this inspection to follow up on enforcement action we issued at our most recent inspection in February 2022, where we asked the provider to make significant improvement to its services.
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“Since that inspection, the provider had commenced transformation of the hospital from one that provided a service to people with a learning disability or autism to one that provided a service to patients with an acquired brain injury. However, although the name of the hospital had changed, patients with an acquired brain injury had not yet been admitted.
“Because this inspection focused only on the concerns raised at our previous inspection and the warning notice issued following it, we did not change our rating. The previous rating of inadequate remains because we did not have enough evidence to re-rate the key questions of ‘safe’ and ‘well led’.”
Following the latest inspection, issues and challenges were highlighted with regard to ensuring staff always understood their individual responsibilities to prevent, identify and report abuse or ill treatment of people in their care, some staff failing to identify and escalate abuse or improper treatment of service users, and incidents that occurred not always being accurately reported and recorded.
The report said: “Between April 2022 and November 2022, the provider recorded 23 episodes of staff speaking up with concerns related to safeguarding or culture in the service. In the same period, the provider recorded 3 incidents where it was identified staff present, but not directly involved in the incident, failed to identify or report a safeguarding concern arising from a colleague’s treatment of a person who used the service.
“The incidents identified concerns for five substantive staff and four temporary staff. The provider identified the concerns and took appropriate action. We saw investigations with outcomes including escalation to external services, staff dismissal, and Disclosure and Barring Service referrals. Where staff remained in the service, there was additional support through training, competency checks and supervision.
“The hospital manager believed staff rarely acted maliciously with people who used the service, instead reviews most often identified developmental opportunities or the need for additional staff support. We saw this illustrated in an incident we reviewed during the inspection when a staff member responded inappropriately during an incident of behaviour that challenged.
“Other staff present acted immediately to correct the staff member and the provider offered support through additional training and supervision.”
There were positives noted in the report, particularly relating to whether the service was caring and the steps taken at the time to transition to the new service the hospital now offers. The report explained: “During this inspection, our observations of staff conduct and behaviour with people using the service was more positive. We saw interactions delivered with care and with clear and accessible language for people who used the service.”
It adds: “Staff told us leaders had communicated plans about the service transformation well. They felt it had been thoroughly explained and appeared well planned. Leaders communicated through team meetings, question and answer sessions and weekly communications emails. Staff told us actions of the leadership team provided reassurance about the service transformation.”
In a statement, Elysium Healthcare said: “The safety and wellbeing of the people in our care is always our highest priority. This latest CQC report focuses on the final transition phase of the former Woodhouse Hospital, which supported people living with a learning disability.
“During this inspection we were completing this process, in line with the Government’s Transforming Care Agenda, which is focused on helping people with learning disabilities and autism move closer to home.
“The Moorlands Neurological Centre is a completely new service, which will ensure that we can meet the local need for complex neurological care in the area.”
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