21 January 2019
During a routine inspection
We rated The Priory Hospital Nottingham as outstanding because:
- Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment of each patient and care plans reflected patients’ views. They provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the patients and in line with national guidance about best practice and worked well to involve patients in decisions about their care by informing them of their treatment options. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided and learned from these to improve their practice.
- Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity and understood the individual needs of patients. They actively involved patients, families and carers in care decisions to make sure patients were active participants in their care and treatment.
- The service provided safe care. The ward environment was safe and clean. The ward had enough nurses and doctors. Staff assessed and managed risk well. They minimised the use of restrictive practices, managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
- 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. We saw evidence of effective working with teams external to the organisation and had positive feedback from these organisations about the quality of the communication from the hospital.
- Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
- Patients were discharged promptly once their condition warranted this.
- The service was well led, managers were actively engaged in supporting the staff and patients on the ward and the governance processes ensured that ward procedures ran smoothly.
However:
- Although staff maintained equipment well, staff did not record when clinical equipment was cleaned. Staff reported they cleaned all clinical equipment before and after every use, but had not recorded this.
- The blood glucose monitoring machine calibration was not part of the external audit company’s audit schedule and there were no records to suggest this machine had been calibrated. However, this did not present an immediate risk to patient safety as the machine was less than 12 months old and therefore was not yet due for calibration.