An independent mental health hospital has been told it must improve following a visit from the Care Quality Commission.

Cygnet Hospital, off Huddersfield Road, Wyke, provides care for 55 male patients across three different wards.

Austen ward is a 14-bed male psychiatric intensive care unit, Branwell ward is a 19-bed acute mental health ward for men of working age and Fairfax ward is a 22- bed ward for older men with mental health problems and challenging behaviour.

In their summary, inspectors from the health watchdog outlined the reasons for the overall rating.

They said: “We had concerns about the use of physical interventions, because staff delivered intra-muscular medications to patients while using planned prone (face down) restraint which is high risk and against national guidance. The recording of restraint holds and some seclusion records did not contain sufficient detail to assure the service that practices were safe and delivered in line with management of aggression and violence training. Staff did not always follow infection prevention and control principles or guidance.

“The care plans we reviewed did not demonstrate the involvement of patients and their carers or relatives.” They added: “On Fairfax ward staff did not always record consent in line with relevant legislation because there was a lack of consistency in how staff assessed people’s mental capacity.”

However, inspectors said the service responded quickly to staff shortages and since an inspection in November 2017, staff had made “significant improvements” to environmental safety on Fairfax ward. They said medicines were managed well, staff knew and understood their responsibilities to report and prevent abuse and the senior leadership team were “knowledgeable, experienced and qualified”.

Nicky McLeod, chief operating officer at Cygnet Health Care, said: “We acknowledge the CQC’s recent report on Cygnet Hospital Wyke, which noted several issues for us to address in terms of the service we provide.

“Immediately following the CQC’s inspection and ahead of the publication of the report we began taking steps to address the concerns raised.

“Cygnet Hospital Wyke have; identified immediate actions to reduce restrictive practice, improved staff skills to care for patients who have complex communication needs, introduced more dementia-friendly ward environments and created a clearer action plan to respond to issues and a better approach to managing risks. The CQC also notes that since its inspection last year there have been significant improvements in areas such as environmental safety, staffing levels and skill mixes are appropriate and patients have comprehensive and holistic assessments as well as proper discharge plans in place.

“Patient care remains our top priority, and we are committed to continuously improving our procedures, protocols and training, which we recognise are all critical to providing the highest standards of healthcare.”