A REPORT found uncompleted daily reviews of patients and incomplete staff training after an unannounced inspection of two mental health hospitals in Bradford and Steeton.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a report on Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust following an inspection of their acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units in December.

Inspectors visited the Ashbrook, Maplebeck and Oakburn wards at Lynfield Mount Hospital and the Fern ward at the Airedale Centre for Mental Health.

The unannounced focused inspection prompted in part by reports of serious incidents on some wards which gave inspectors concerns about the safety and quality of the care being provided. Inspectors also returned to check on the progress of improvements the trust were told to make in March 2020.

This service was not rated at this inspection and remains rated as Good overall. There are also no changes to the trust’s overall rating of Requires Improvement.

Some of the inspection findings included:

• The service was well-led and the governance processes ensured that ward procedures ran smoothly.

• Staff developed care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They also provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of people using the service.

• Staff treated people with compassion and kindness and respected their privacy and dignity, and clearly understood the individual needs of patients and involved them and their families and carers in care decisions.

• Staff assessed and managed risk well and minimised the use of restrictive practices.

However, inspectors also found:

• On one ward staff did not always complete regular daily reviews of the ward environment.

• Staff compliance with some mandatory training courses was below 75 per cent. This was due to an initial pause on training

delivery until Covid-19 safe lesson plans and environments were identified. At the time of the inspection face to face training had resumed with restricted numbers.

• Staff did not always ensure that all care plans were personalised or written from the patients’ perspective. The

recording of discharge planning was inconsistent.

A spokesperson for Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust said: “Following an inspection of our acute mental health and psychiatric intensive care wards last December, the CQC’s report clearly recognises that staff treated patients with kindness and respect, that they understood the individual needs of our patients, and that the ward environments were clean and safe.

"It also recognises the hard work and commitment of all the staff in continuing to improve the quality of our services, alongside managing the on-going and unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.

"The inspection also identifies areas that we need to build on, using our care trust way approach to continuous quality improvement.

"It’s testimony to the services’ sustained focus on quality improvement that our acute mental health and psychiatric intensive care wards continue to be rated good across all five areas of caring, responsive, effective, safe and well-led, retaining an overall rating of good.”