Chief Inspector of Hospitals inspects core services at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has completed focused inspections of wards for older people with mental health problems, acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units at the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust during May 2015.

During previous inspections carried out by the Care Quality Commission in March 2014, a number of areas for concern across wards for older people were identified including inconsistent risk management and assessment of patients, incident reporting not always being undertaken and patient care plans not being detailed or personalised.

Across acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units, previously identified concerns included management of medicines and risk management.

During the most recent inspection, CQC found that improvements had been made on individual wards and requirements had been met. However, further areas for concern were identified. CQC issued five requirement notices requiring South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust to take action to improve the delivery of safe care and treatment for acute adult and older patients, dignity and respect for older patients, and person centred care and understanding of patient consent on particular wards for adults of working age.

Full reports for the focused inspections carried out across the provider’s core services, are available at: www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RQY.

Paul Lelliott, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals for mental health, said:

"Our recent focused inspection has found that South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust has taken steps to address a number of areas of concern that were previously identified on wards for older people with mental health problems, acute wards for adults of working age and a psychiatric intensive care unit in March 2014.

“Although we have found improvements in risk management, incident reporting and medicines management, further areas requiring improvement were identified. We have concerns about the delivery of safe care and treatment for acute adult patients of working age and older people, and the maintenance of dignity and respect for older patients.

“It is essential that the trust takes prompt and appropriate action to address these areas for concern and I look forward to improvements being implemented upon our next comprehensive inspection of South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust to ensure that service provision meets all the required standards.”

The trust must submit a report to CQC detailing the action that will be taken to ensure required standards are met and areas requiring improvement are addressed across the core services inspected.