The Care Quality Commission has told Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust that it must make significant improvements to its community-based mental health services for adults of working age, following its latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
CQC undertook an unannounced inspection, following information received through its ongoing monitoring. Concerns were raised with us around staffing levels and the potential risk this presented to patients. Similar concerns had been highlighted during a previous inspection in January 2017.
CQC has issued a warning notice requiring the trust to complete an immediate review of the caseload for each of the community mental health teams for adults of working age.
Inspectors found that the community mental health teams did not have systems in place to ensure that caseloads were managed effectively. Staff did not have formal handovers, patients were not followed up if they did not attend and patients were not always discharged from the service when this was appropriate.
There were not always enough staff in the South Kent Coast and Canterbury and Coastal community mental health teams to assess new patients effectively. Staff did not effectively record care plans or progress notes in patients’ care records. This made it difficult for staff to follow a consistent approach and monitor patients’ progress. Also, there were many examples of patients’ appointments being cancelled at short notice.
Staff told inspectors that they felt overworked and were concerned that patients were at risk. They did not feel supported by senior managers within the trust.
However, staff did feel supported by colleagues and had a good understanding of the safeguarding and lone-working procedures. They were knowledgeable about how to report incidents and learn lessons from them.
In the Medway community mental health team, inspectors found good examples of staff carrying out detailed initial assessments which provided a strong basis for the patient to receive good care and treatment.
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector for Hospitals (and lead for mental health), said:
“It is a matter of concern that our inspection of the community services provided by Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust has again found that patients are at risk of harm in some parts of Kent because they are not being properly assessed or followed up.
"Despite this, we also found areas of good practice by staff who are providing compassionate, high quality care during this challenging time.
“At the time of the inspection we immediately raised our concerns to the trust board who have now taken steps to put improvements in place. We will monitor the trust closely and follow these issues up at our next inspection to review the progress the trust has made“
A copy of the report is available on our website.
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...patients are at risk of harm in some parts of Kent because they are not being properly assessed or followed up
Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and lead for mental health)