THE Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found improvements have been made at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust after an unannounced inspection.
They inspected three core services at the trust including: acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units (PICU), long stay/ rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults, and forensic inpatient secure wards.
They found action had been made to reduce the risk of ligature points on the wards which meant the conditions had been met.
The trust had also met the requirements of the warning notice as inspectors found staffing levels had improved across the wards and therefore, the warning notice is no longer in place, however inspectors did tell the provider that further improvements were needed.
The CQC had concerns about the environment as courtyard areas were unclean and wasn’t a pleasant place for people to spend time in.
As this was a focused inspection, the services were not re-rated and the previous ratings remain in place.
Amanda Lyndon, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said: “When we inspected Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, it was encouraging to see the trust has taken steps to make improvements to meet conditions placed on them, and to meet the areas where improvement was needed within the warning notice.
“However, further work still needs to be done to provide the safe care people deserve.
“It shows our enforcement action can highlight concerns which need urgent action and in turn supports organisations to drive improvement.”
The overall rating for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust remains rated as requires improvement.
