BIRMINGHAM and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust has been told it must make improvements after the rating for community-based mental health services for adults of working age has declined.
The Trust was visited by Care Quality Commissioner (CQC) Inspectors who downgraded its overall rating to Requires Improvement.
The CQC say the short notice inspection of the community-based mental health services for adults of working age was carried out after it received information about serious incidents involving people who use the service including three deaths.
This included the site in Lyndon.
Following the inspection the CQC issued a Section 29A Warning Notice to the Trust requiring it to make significant improvements regarding governance systems to ensure patient risk and medicines are managed safely.
It added that the trust responded to this with action plans to show that action was being taken to reduce these risks and we are monitoring their progress with these.
Inspectors found the service did not have enough staff to safely care for people and staff did not always record what care a person needed and did not always record care and treatment given to people.
The CQC added that managers did not always monitor the effectiveness of the service and staff did not complete audits which could be used to improve the service.
Amanda Lyndon, CQC deputy director of operations in the midlands, said: “It was concerning to find adequate medicines management systems weren’t in place to ensure people received the right medicines in a timely way to treat their condition.
“We’ll continue to monitor the service, including through future inspections, to make sure the trust has made the required improvements and people are receiving the safe care they deserve. We won’t hesitate to take further action if we find this isn’t happening.”
However, the report notes that most people told inspectors the staff had been very helpful and kind and said the service had been very good and they had received amazing support.
The report added the environments were clean, well-maintained and fit for purpose and staff had training in key skills and understood how to protect people from abuse.
A spokesperson for the Trust said: “We accept the recommendations of the CQC Report.
“Whilst we are disappointed in some of the findings, we have made progress in addressing the issues raised and are committed to providing the best possible care for our service users.
“It was encouraging that the CQC noted many positives including that staff work well together for the benefit of service users, understand how to protect them from abuse and that teams support each other to ensure there are no gaps in care.”
