Bromley Road Hospital

Updated 14 May 2024

Bromley Road Hospital is a complex care, high dependency rehabilitation service. This means that patients typically present with severe symptoms of mental ill health and often other health conditions and are usually detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. The service is provided by Elysium Healthcare Limited and aims to prepare patients for discharge to the community or supported living services. This is achieved through assessment, engagement, maximising benefits from medicines, reducing distressed behaviours and re-engaging with families and communities. There are two main pathways at the service: treatment engaging, with a typical length of stay of 6-12 months, and treatment resistant, with a typical length of stay of 12-18 months. Olive ward had 18 beds. Cedar ward was now a small 6 bed step-down ward where patients were being prepared for discharge to the community. Staff worked across the entire hospital rather than on designated wards.

The service is in Catford, south London. Patients can aim to integrate into the local community by joining community projects including peer support projects, recovery colleges, music programmes, art networks and volunteer work programmes.

The service was last inspected in November 2018 and was rated in good across all five key questions and good overall.

Updated 14 May 2024

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• The service provided safe care. The ward environments were safe and clean and staff managed environmental risks well. The wards had enough nurses. The service had successfully over-recruited to its nurse vacancies. Staff assessed and managed risk well. They minimised the use of restrictive practices, managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the patients cared for in a mental health rehabilitation ward and in line with national guidance about best practice. This included psychology and occupational therapy support aimed at developing patients daily living skills. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The ward teams included or had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of patients on the wards. Managers ensured that these staff received training, supervision and appraisal. The ward staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with those outside the ward who would have a role in providing aftercare.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood the individual needs of patients. They actively involved patients and families and carers in care decisions.
• Staff planned and managed discharge well and liaised well with services that would provide aftercare. As a result, discharge was rarely delayed for anything other than a clinical reason.
• The service worked to a recognised model of mental health rehabilitation. It was well led and the governance processes ensured that ward procedures ran smoothly.

However:

• Although the service was working to embed a more robust approach to out of hours medical cover, there was a present risk that the substantive consultant psychiatrist might be difficult to get hold of whilst they were off work.
• Staff had been recording routine physical health checks on two separate records, and there were delays to some patients’ annual physical health checks (required because they were prescribed high-dose antipsychotic medicines). These issues had not been identified by the provider’s internal governance systems.
• The service did not currently have a registered nurse lead for physical health. Although a nursing assistant did hold this role, staff needed to be supported appropriately to manage and monitor patients’ physical healthcare needs, which, we noted, were significant.

Updated 14 May 2024