Mental health trust wards require improvement

A trust's wards for older people with mental health problems have been rated as requires improvement.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) report on wards at Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge, and the Cavell Centre in Peterborough, all run by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), followed an inspection in January.

The commission lowered the rating from "good" to "requires improvement" after inspectors found leaders had poor oversight of some risks, including safeguarding.

Stuart Dunn, CQC deputy director of mental health in the East of England, said inspectors found "leaders had missed some concerning gaps in people's safety".

The CQC rated the service good for how effective, caring and responsive it was, and said the trust as a whole remained rated as requires improvement.

A spokesperson for CPFT said: "We take these findings seriously and immediate actions have been taken to address the gaps identified during the inspection.

"We welcome the CQC's recognition of the compassionate care delivered by our staff, the positive feedback from relatives and carers, and the services continuing to be rated good for being caring, effective, and responsive."

Inspectors found that some staff did not have enough training in medicines management and were not recording or storing them safely.

Leaders also needed to address some alarms going off in error on Willow ward, Fulbourn Hospital, which could wake people up and make them feel unsettled, the CQC said.

Dunn added that "many staff felt there weren't enough of them to do their jobs properly, and we found they couldn't provide people one-to-one care regularly".

However, the report said people's relatives and carers felt staff were helpful and supportive.

Dunn added: "They communicated with people well.

"When people felt distressed, they de-escalated the situation compassionately."

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