Grove Park

Updated 13 April 2023

Grove Park is provided by Grove Park Healthcare Group Limited. Grove Park is a hospital that has two acute mental health wards for adults of working age, and 2 nursing units for older adults with complex needs. Each of the acute mental health wards has 9 beds and the nursing unit has 58 beds.

Grove Park is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
• Accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care.

The hospital has a registered manager in place. A registered manager, along with the registered provider, is legally responsible and accountable for compliance with the requirements of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated regulations.

Grove Park was registered with the CQC in February 2022. We previously carried out a focused inspection of the service in June 2022. Following this inspection we told the provider it must make the following improvements:

• Ensure all staff working with patients have undertaken the required training to ensure they are competent to deliver safe and good quality care to patients. In addition, they must receive regular supervision and appropriate levels of support from managers.
• Ensure there are appropriate emergency medicines available at all times and that staff are trained and competent to use them when needed.
• Ensure there are effective governance processes in place to assess, monitor and improve the safety and quality of the services as needed. Leaders must ensure they have clear and robust oversight of the service.

We found that the provider had taken action to ensure emergency medicines were in place. With regards to mandatory training, the provider had implemented a one day training course which covered the key training for health and social care staff identified by the core training and skills framework, however, compliance with some other mandatory training courses remained low. Governance processes had improved since the previous inspection but still required strengthening.

What people who use the service say

Patients told us that they felt safe on the wards and that staff treated them well. They told us the wards are very clean and nicely decorated. Patients did not feel they had been involved in their care plans. Patients told us that staff ensured their family members were kept updated.

Updated 13 April 2023

Grove Park is a hospital that has two acute mental health wards for adults of working age and 2 nursing units for older adults with complex needs. We inspected both the hospital and nursing home parts of the service. This report details the findings from the hospital inspection and a separate report details the findings from the nursing home inspection.

This was the first time we rated this service. We rated it as ​requires improvement​ because:

• Staff had not carried out a full ligature risk assessment of the mental health unit. This meant that there were potential ligature risks which did not have clear mitigation in place and therefore posed a risk to patient safety.
• There were blanket restrictions in place on the wards. Patients were unable to make hot drinks or snacks without staff support.
• Staff were unaware of the provider’s physical health and wellbeing policy which led to inconsistencies in how often physical health monitoring was being carried out on each of the wards.
• The service had a 37% vacancy rate for nurses and a 45% vacancy rate for healthcare assistants. The service used bank and agency staff to fill any gaps.
• We found gaps in physical health monitoring charts which had not been picked up through the provider’s quality assurance processes.
• The provider did not ensure that their risk register was kept up to date.
• The service did not have an Occupational Therapist and we found instances where patient’s needs had not been assessed.
• Patients told us they had not been involved in their care planning.
• The area where emergency drugs and equipment were stored on Westborne ward was very cluttered and we were concerned this could cause a delay in staff accessing these items in an emergency.
• The provider did not have a clear process in place around the completion of Venous thromboembolism (VTE) assessments.
• Staff did not always ensure capacity assessments were carried out when patients had important decisions to make.
• Staff had not documented whether discussions around consent to informal admission had taken place with patients.
• The provider had improved their mandatory training compliance since their last inspection, however, compliance with some courses was still low.

However:

• The ward environments were pleasant and clean. The wards had enough nurses and doctors. They managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Managers ensured that staff received supervision. The ward staff worked closely with those outside the ward who would have a role in providing aftercare.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness and understood the individual needs of patients.

Updated 13 April 2023

This was the first time we rated this service. We rated it as ​requires improvement​ because:

• Staff had not carried out a full ligature risk assessment of the mental health unit. This meant that there were potential ligature risks which did not have clear mitigation in place and therefore posed a risk to patient safety.
• There were blanket restrictions in place on the wards. Patients were unable to make hot drinks or snacks without staff support.
• Staff were unaware of the provider’s physical health and wellbeing policy which led to inconsistencies in how often physical health monitoring was being carried out on each of the wards.
• The service had a 37% vacancy rate for nurses and a 45% vacancy rate for healthcare assistants. The service used bank and agency staff to fill any gaps.
• We found gaps in physical health monitoring charts which had not been picked up through the provider’s quality assurance processes.
• The provider did not ensure that their risk register was kept up to date.
• The service did not have an Occupational Therapist and we found instances where patient’s needs had not been assessed.
• Patients told us they had not been involved in their care planning.
• The area where emergency drugs and equipment were stored on Westborne ward was very cluttered and we were concerned this could cause a delay in staff accessing these items in an emergency.
• The provider did not have a clear process in place around the completion of Venous thromboembolism (VTE) assessments.
• Staff did not always ensure capacity assessments were carried out when patients had important decisions to make.
• Staff had not documented whether discussions around consent to informal admission had taken place with patients.
• The provider had improved their mandatory training compliance since their last inspection, however, compliance with some courses was still low.

However:

• The ward environments were pleasant and clean. The wards had enough nurses and doctors. They managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Managers ensured that staff received supervision. The ward staff worked closely with those outside the ward who would have a role in providing aftercare.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness and understood the individual needs of patients.