25 and 27 February 2014
During a routine inspection
Newholme Hospital is situated in Bakewell, North Derbyshire it is run by Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust. Newholme Hospital is also the headquarters of the Trust.
Newholme Hospital provides two inpatient wards: Riverside ward has 18 beds and provides care for elderly patients with mental health difficulties. This can include patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Rowsley ward has 18 beds and provides rehabilitation for elderly patients. Additionally, there are some day patient services at Newholme Hospital.
Patients and families were largely positive about inpatient care. They felt staff treated them with respect and dignity. Staff were sensitive to patients needs and used good communication skills to get to know them. Patients were routinely offered choices and were involved in their care. However, mental health care plans were standardised and did not contain sufficient detail about the person as an individual, their views, wishes and preferences.
There were systems in place to identify, investigate and learn from patient safety incidents. However in the past some significant delays in processing incident reports have reduced the effectiveness of learning lessons. Staff were trained in safeguarding adults and there were suitable systems in place to handle any allegations of abuse. Patients’ records were filed separately by different professionals which could lead to lack of consistency of care and treatment.
Services were effective in meeting patient’s needs. There was good collaborative and multi- agency working in place to ensure patient’s needs were met. There were effective systems and processes in place to manage the admission of detained patients under the Mental Health Act.
Patients were involved in discharge planning and there were systems in place to ensure they would receive suitable care and support at home if it was needed. However discharge arrangements were not always well documented.
Hospital Managers had rudimentary understanding of many of their duties in respect of the Mental Health Act. Legal updates, support in risk assessment and role specific training were not provided. Senior managers were aware of the challenges they faced. They had been responsive to problems when they arose and had strategies in place to improve services.