- Independent mental health service
Cygnet Victoria House
Report from 14 March 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of assessment 26 March 2024 Reason for assessment: We conducted an onsite assessment of the safe quality statement in response to concerns we had about risk on the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, Albert Ward. At the time of our visit there were 8 patients on the ward. The ward was safe and clean. Staff used restraint and seclusion only after attempts at de-escalation had failed. Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so. The service used systems and processes to safely prescribe, administer, record and store medicines. Staff recognised incidents and reported them appropriately. Managers investigated incidents and shared lessons learned with the whole team and the wider service. However, we found a breach of the legal regulation in relation to staffing. The service did not have enough nursing staff to ensure patients were able to receive adequate therapeutic care as required by their own staffing matrix and the staffing matrix had not been reviewed since May 2016. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to our concerns.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with 2 patients in private and 1 patient in the communal area in the presence of staff. They all said they were able to access their allocated leave time off the ward, even if there had sometimes been delays due to staffing. Although there could be unsettled periods on the ward, patients said they felt safe and were happy with the general environment and resources available to them.