Archived: Abbey Court Independent Hospital

Updated 27 January 2017

Abbey Court Independent Hospital in Birchwood, Warrington, was part of the Alternative Futures Group. It had a registered manager and provided the following regulated activities:

• assessment or medical treatment for people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• diagnostic and screening procedures
• treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Abbey Court provided care for up to 30 people with complex mental health problems, most commonly dementia. The hospital had two wards but at the time of our inspection, the service was closing down and was not receiving any admissions. Crossfield Ward had been closed in April 2016, and at the time of our inspection, there were three patients on Wilderspool Ward. These patients were due to be discharged before the end of January 2017.

The hospital had an accountable officer for controlled drugs.

We have inspected Abbey Court Independent Hospital five times since it was registered with CQC on 21 March 2011. The most recent inspection was conducted in August 2016. The hospital was found to be in breach of two regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Regulation 12: Safe care and treatment, and Regulation 17: Good governance.

On this inspection we found that the required improvements had been made.

Updated 27 January 2017

When aggregating ratings, our inspection teams follow a set of principles to ensure consistent decisions. The principles will normally apply but will be balanced by inspection teams using their discretion and professional judgement in the light of all of the available evidence.

We conducted this unannounced focused inspection to review two requirement notices given at our last focused inspection in August 2016. The requirement notices related to the effective key question which we rated as requiring improvement due to breaches of regulation 12 – Safe care and treatment and regulation 17 - Good governance. Following the inspection in August 2016, the provider submitted action plans telling us how they would make improvements. This also covered areas where we had made recommendations.

We inspected Abbey Court on 12 December 2016 to check whether these improvements had been made. We found areas of good practice:

• We found staff were taking and recording physical health observations in line with their provider’s policy. Staff were using the modified early warning score tool to identify and action any concerns with a patient’s physical observations.
• Staff had completed training in modified early warning scores which enabled them to use the tool correctly.
• A risk assessment protocol had been put in place for the use of the posture support chair. This ensured that staff had an understanding of how to use this safely.
• There was a procedure in place for recording clinical room temperatures. Staff understood what to do if the temperatures rose above a certain point.
• Line management supervision was taking place regularly, in line with the service policy.

However,

• One patient who had an increase modified early warning score did not have this followed up as per the escalation procedure.
• The clinical room temperatures were not recorded on 11 occasions.
• Staff told us that they did not feel that they received enough clinical supervision

As we did not review the ratings for the other four domains the ratings for those remain as previously rated in August 2016.

Updated 27 January 2017