Archived: Armley Park Court

Updated 20 April 2017

St Martins’ Healthcare Services was formed in 2008 to deliver a community substance misuse prescribing service in Leeds. The service became a community interest company in 2011 and developed strong links with established primary care and specialist community drug and alcohol service providers in Leeds. The drug treatment system was re-tendered in July 2015. A consortium of five organisations, including St Martins’ Healthcare Services, was successful in winning the tender for the services now known as Forward Leeds. However, St Martins’ Healthcare Services are not the lead contracted holder and are subcontracted by another substance misuse provider. Forward Leeds is the second largest integrated substance misuse treatment service for both drugs and alcohol in the country.

St Martins’ provide recovery focused community substance misuse medical intervention services for Forward Leeds. These services include pharmacological interventions for drug and alcohol misuse, including substitute prescribing for opiate dependency, and detoxifications in the community. They also provide physical health screening, and blood borne virus testing, immunisation and access to treatment for these viruses.

St Martins’ are registered to provide treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

Updated 20 April 2017

We do not currently rate independent standalone substance misuse services.

We found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:

The provider did not have sufficient oversight and accountability for all systems and processes in relation to mandatory training, infection control procedures, key chain management, emergency medication and the management of clinical waste.

Facilities for the storage of clinical waste were not in line with the organisations policy and clinical waste was not always stored separately from unused stock. Some clinic rooms did not all have frosted glass panels which meant clients’ dignity and privacy was not always maintained during treatment in clinic rooms.

The provider employed people in a range of clinical roles including doctors, non-medical prescribers, prescription facilitators, clinical administrators and five recovery coordinators. Staff compliance with mandatory training was below 75%.

The provider did not have a system or process established, to assess and monitor staff compliance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. There was no oversight or assurance that the Mental Capacity Act 2005 was being applied across the organisation.

However, we found the following areas of good practice:

The provider regularly reviewed the demand for the service and used a supply versus demand calculation to ensure there were adequate clinic sessions available for clients to access. This meant nearly all clients had commenced treatment within three weeks of accessing the service and clients who had been released from prison were able to see a clinician on the same day. Clinicians also assessed client’s physical health and clients prescribed above 100mg of methadone were given an electrocardiograph to monitor for any heart abnormalities.