April 18, 2023 3.00 pm This story is over 26 months old

Sleaford mental health hospital ‘requires improvement’ in all areas

Serious health and safety concerns in previous reports
| Photo: Adobe Stock
By Local Democracy Reporter

An independent mental health hospital in Sleaford has been told it ‘Requires Improvement’ by the CQC.

However, progress it was placed under special measures and rated Inadequate in 2021.

Magna House on Main Road is a 29-bed hospital that provides care, treatment and rehabilitation services to people experiencing mental health issues.

A focused inspection of the mental health service was carried out by the Care Quality Commission on October 4 and 5 last year, and published on April 11.

The report deems Magna House as requiring improvement across the board, with categories of safety, effectiveness, level of care, responsiveness and leadership all coming under scrutiny from the CQC.

It is still a sign of progression after a damning 2021 CQC inspection into  health and social care breaches.

The provider was found to have breached the Health and Social Care Act Regulations at the time, and a notice was served to immediately remove patients from one of its wards and not to admit any further patients without written CQC approval.

This request was actioned and an action plan was submitted by the provider, and they filed for re-inspection in February 2022.

An inspection in May 2022 found that conditions had been met and measures were removed, but it was not re-rated at this inspection.

This most recent inspection was carried out to give the service a new rating, for which it scored Requires Improvement.

Inspectors found that there were not enough registered mental health nurses on shift across the facility, and that care plans were not always patient centred.

Staff are alleged to have not updated risk assessments after each incident, and it is claimed that some of the ward environments are dirty or in need of repair.

However, staff were praised for their knowledge of roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act, and systems were in place to prescribe and administer medicines safely.

Magna House’s care provider, Enbridge Healthcare Limited, was contacted for comment, but hadn’t responded the time of publication.

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