Mental health crisis services on the Isle of Wight have fallen short of the standards expected.
The services provided by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have been rated ‘requires improvement’ by a watchdog.
‘Sincere apologies’ have been offered to those relying on the service.
A Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection found 7 breaches of regulation relating to staffing, response times for urgent and very urgent mental health care, seclusion practices, direct outdoor access and overall service management.
Services were graded ‘requires improvement’ for the watchdog’s safe, responsive, effective and well-led categories, and another – caring – was marked good.
In response to the inspection, the trust said it is ‘sorry’ the CQC found its mental health crisis services did not consistently provide the standard of care people have a ‘right to expect’.
Findings included short staffing in crisis teams causing delays for service users and making some staff feel unsafe, people not always being able to access a health-based place of safety, or the crisis helpline, when they needed to and crisis support in specific locations not always being appropriate.
Health-based places of safety are dedicated, calm environments where police can take people detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act for a mental health assessment, rather than being taken to a police station, according to the NHS.
Positive aspects included staff treating people with kindness and compassion as well as understanding the diverse health and care needs of service users, safety events being investigated and reported and the trust’s carers involvement team providing a range of support for carers.
Suzie Marriott, chief nurse and executive director of Allied Health Professions and Social Work at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“While we are proud that our staff were recognised for their kindness and compassion, we fully accept the concerns raised in relation to access to services, response times, governance, environments and staffing.
“We recognise the impact this may have had on people using our services, their families and carers, and our staff, and we offer our sincere apologies.
“As a newly formed organisation, we are working at pace to bring together services and establish consistent, high-quality standards across the trust.
“We have already taken steps to improve access to our services, reduce waiting times, and improve our governance arrangements.
“We have also developed a comprehensive action plan to address all of the issues identified by the CQC.”
She added that the trust is committed to learning from the inspection and is implementing necessary improvements to ensure everyone experiencing a mental health crisis receives ‘timely, safe and compassionate’ care, wherever they are.
