The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has highlighted safety concerns and short staffing at a specialist NHS learning disability and autism ward in South Tyneside.
Concerns from members of the public led to a focussed inspection at Rose Lodge, which is a facility in Hebburn managed by the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust (CNTW). CNTW runs mental health and learning disability services in our region.
The CQC's inspectors found the ward - a specialist unit which assesses and treats those with learning disabilities and autism - was not delivering safe care. However, CNTW's chief exec James Duncan said immediate action had been taken at Rose Lodge to address concerns.
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A second, comprehensive inspection of CNTW's services has since taken place and Mr Duncan said initial feedback from the CQC had recognised there was evidence of improvement. The full comprehensive report is expected to be published this summer.
Issues raised by inspectors at Rose Lodge included how management at the service did not thoroughly investigate all incidents, an unsafe lack of nursing and support staff, and patchy provision of safeguarding training around spotting the signs of abuse. Also highlighted was a lack of detail in some risk management plans and how staff did not always apologise when things went wrong.
However, the CQC did praise how staff interacted with patients, the use of de-escalation techniques and inductions for locum staff.
Debbie Ivanova, the agency's director with responsibility for people with learning disabilities and autism, said: "When inspectors visited Rose Lodge, they found a ward that wasn’t delivering safe care to people, with some staff feeling unsafe due to continued short staffing.
"There was high use of agency staff with some shifts falling below safe staffing levels. This led to staff not having time to fully meet people’s needs or manage risks properly to prevent them coming to harm."
She added that the monitoring of some patients' physical health issues "was not always taking place", but said the inspectors had been pleased to see a new manager with experience of learning disability nursing had begun work. She said CNTW had "responded quickly" and provided a "robust action plan to give assurances that people were receiving safe care".
James Duncan, CNTW's chief exec said: "We are committed to listening, acting upon concerns and improving services for our patients. Following the CQC inspection we took immediate action to address concerns.
"Since the focussed inspection on Rose Lodge, and the immediate actions taken by the Trust, the CQC have conducted a further comprehensive inspection across all of our learning disability services and we await the publication of their full report. We are pleased that initial feedback from the comprehensive inspection confirmed that there is evidence that improvements have been made."
He said CNTW was "fully committed" to ensuring improvement continues and was working with staff and partners to address the CQC's recommendations.
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