HMP Garth

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Patients received timely reviews, drug tests and annual health checks. Staff did not always remember to update waiting lists and close completed tasks but we were assured that this did not affect the provision of timely care and treatment.

Find out what we look at when we assess this area in our information about our new Single assessment framework.

The judgement for Assessing needs is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Delivering evidence-based care and treatment is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for How staff, teams and services work together is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

The judgement for Supporting people to live healthier lives is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.

At our previous inspection, we said the provider should address the back logs for activities such as 13-week reviews and routine drugs testing for people on opioid substitution treatment, and annual health checks for people on the Care Programme Approach. During this assessment, we found that patients received timely reviews, drug tests and annual health checks. Managers prioritised these activities when they were due by scheduling clinics in advance and allocating protected staff time. We reviewed performance data for Quarter 4, which showed 100% achievement of 13-week reviews. At our previous inspection, we said that the provider should cleanse data and keep records such as waiting lists, tasks and reviews updated. During this assessment, we found that while staff did not always update the lists, patients always received timely reviews and checks. The service used the Quality Outcomes Framework to register patients with long-term conditions and offer the appropriate checks and reviews associated with their conditions. Alongside, the service held waiting lists for each long-term condition to manage and schedule reviews. Some of these waiting lists showed overdue reviews. We checked waiting lists for asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular disease and found that all patients listed as overdue for reviews had received them. The tasks lists contained over 454 open tasks dating back to February 2022. However, on checking a sample of open tasks, we found that tasks were actioned appropriately, but staff did not always close the task. Managers were aware of the data cleansing needed; they were encouraging staff to change their practice by closing tasks as soon as they had taken action and updating the waiting (review) lists during a patient’s review.

The judgement for Consent to care and treatment is based on the latest evidence we assessed for the Effective key question.