Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust overall rating downgraded to ‘requires improvement’ by Care Quality Commission

LOW staffing levels have contributed to the embattled Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust having its rating downgraded to ‘requires improvement’.

The trust had its previous ‘good’ overall mark removed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after inspectors turned up unannounced throughout October and November at of six of its 10 core mental health services.

The demotion is a blow for Southern Health, which runs mental health services in Hampshire and several hospitals, including at Lymington, although these were not part of the inspection.

Concerns were flagged over staffing levels, the pandemic requiring plans to be shelved, and work still being required to bring the clinical and wider trust strategies together into a comprehensive document that set out its direction clearly.

There were also gaps found in the recording of a patient’s health if it was deteriorating and in how that recording was escalated.

The trust stressed that while its overall rating had dipped, other services remained at their 'good' rating – including at Lymington hospital and its Hampshire-wide community health service.

As reported in the A&T, the trust’s reputation has been under pressure since the deaths of five people in its care between October 2011 and November 2015, with a number of critical reports requiring changes.

Karen Bennett-Wilson, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said: “In particular, we were concerned that the trust did not have enough staff to meet people’s needs in four of the six services we visited, and this was leading to low morale in some areas.

“Some staff said that they felt pressurised to admit patients onto wards when it was unsafe to do so, and we were told the number of injuries to staff and patients during incidents of aggression on the acute wards and Psychiatric Intensive Care Units.”

The CQC said the reduced grade reflected “specific concerns that inspectors had about safety issues”, but added the trust’s “highly skilled and experienced leadership team” was taking action.

Southern Health chief executive Ron Shields said it was “disappointed” but highlighted the CQC report “praised our staff and our culture of care”, heard positive feedback from patients, and found “strong, supportive leadership actively tackling the challenges”.

“Staffing is one of the biggest challenges the trust and the NHS faces, and even more so during this pandemic,” he added.

“We are responding to the staffing pressures highlighted by the CQC and are focused on supporting the health and wellbeing of our people.”

The CQC report said the areas inspected included wards for people with a learning disability or autistic people, child and adolescent mental health wards, forensic inpatient secure wards, and acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units.

The other areas included wards for older people with mental health problems and mental health crisis services and health-based places of safety.