An under-fire NHS Trust has seen two hospitals hit with "inadequate" Care Quality Commission ratings amid safety concerns, including that at one - Lanchester Road in Durham - three patients were injured while being restrained.
After an inspection over May and June, the CQC has rated the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust's wards for people with a learning disability or autism as "inadequate". The trust also currently has an overall rating of "requires improvement". Its wards for older people, psychiatric intensive care units and community mental health services also "requires improvement".
Inspectors, who visited learning disability and autism provision at Lanchester Road in Durham and Bankfields Court in Teesside, raised issues around patient independence, "high levels of restrictive practice including seclusion, restraint and rapid tranquilisation", and a lack of "appropriately skilled staff".
