- SERVICE PROVIDER
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
This is an organisation that runs the health and social care services we inspect
We served a s29A warning notice on Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust on 20 June 2024 for Lack of effective governance systems, ligature risks and fire safety concerns, medicines not managed safely, ward security systems not consistently keeping people safe, infection prevention and control risks and staff not up to date with mandatory training.
Report from 3 December 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units
Our view of the service
We carried out an unannounced inspection of the acute wards for adults of a working age and psychiatric intensive care units on 19th – 22nd March 2024. During our inspection we visited all 23 wards across 6 locations. We gathered information from people using the service and their loved ones, staff and managers, other stakeholders and our own observations. We reviewed a range of documents including care records, and policies and procedures. We looked at 22 quality statements. During our inspection we found that patients had mixed views of the service and not all of them felt safe. Some staff were caring and supportive, whilst other staff did not always respond to patients needs or distress. The environment was not maintained safely and there were issues with fire risks which were not being addressed adequately. Although there were sufficient staff, staff had not always received an induction, supervision or appropriate training. We had concerns about the skill mix on some of the wards. The physical health needs of patients were not always managed adequately and medicines were not always administered and managed safely. Staff generally felt supported by their managers and felt they could raise concerns. However, governance processes were inconsistent in quality and format across different locations and were not always effective at ward level.
People's experience of this service
Patients told us they did not always feel safe on the wards because staff did not always intervene when other patients were acting aggressively or in a way that made them feel uncomfortable. Patients told us some staff were really supportive and caring, however they also felt that some staff did not know them and were not caring or responsive to their needs. Carers mostly said that staff were great and felt they were very supportive of their loved ones. Patients raised concerns about the cleanliness of some of the wards and some patients told us they did not like the food. Most patients said they had access to advocacy and understood their medicines. A significant number of patients felt they were not involved in their care plans and some patients did not know if they had a care plan. Most carers also felt they were not involved in their loved one’s care plans but they told us they were invited to meetings to discuss their loved one’s care.