Archived: Apple Hill

Updated 25 July 2016

Apple Hill provides accommodation with nursing care for older people with dementia and assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Since July 2015 Apple Hill has been registered as a hospital providing care for people detained under the Mental Health Act.

It was planned that any detained patients would be admitted to Hurley ward if male, and Tedray ward if female. At the time of the inspection they had admitted the first detained patient five days previously. This patient was on Russell ward rather than Hurley ward due to his mobility issues.

Apple Hill was also still functioning as a nursing home, and the other people living in the hospital were referred to as residents. 

The service can accommodate up to 41 people as follows:

Tedray Ward: four beds nominated for female inpatient care, also used for nursing care

Russel Ward: ten beds nominated for male inpatient care, also used for nursing care

Hurley Ward: ten beds for nursing care for men

Regatta Ward: ten beds for nursing care for women

Walbury Ward: seven beds for nursing care for men.

Apple Hill has a registered manager in post and a nominated accountable officer.

This service was previously inspected on 7 March 2014. At that time we found it was compliant with all regulations.

Updated 25 July 2016

Inspected but not rated

• We found that some ward areas did not have environmental risk assessments in place. We also identified ligature risks that had been missed from the assessment completed. Some of the staff we spoke with were not able to recognise ligature risks in the areas where they worked.
• We found example of interventions that met the definition of physical restraint and seclusion, the staff working in the hospital failed to recognise these and were not recording them appropriately.
• Patients detained under the Mental Health Act are subject to additional restrictions and specific rights. We found that the staff working with detained patients had not been trained in the Mental Health Act. The hospital had identified this through audit but had failed to take any action to address this. The hospital had begun to admit patients before the staff team were trained.

However

• All patients had good access to physical healthcare in addition to their mental health care.
• There was a good standard of medicines management
• Staff worked with patients in a caring way and took time to understand how patients communicate.
• Care plans reflected people’s preferences and advanced decisions about care.