Updated
27 March 2026
We assessed The Priory Middleton St George Mental Health Hospital from 13 to 14 January 2026.
The Priory Hospital Middleton St George is a 104-bed hospital that provides 24-hour support 7 days a week for people aged 18 years and over with mental health problems, personality disorders or both.
The hospital is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide the following regulated activities:
• assessment or medical treatment for people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
Our rating of this service improved. We rated it as good.
The hospital has two assessment service groups (ASG): the long stay or rehabilitation wards for working age adults and acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units.
At this assessment, we assessed the acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units only. We rated this ASG as requires improvement in Safe and good in the other key questions.
When the ratings were aggregated for both care service, the overall rating for the location is good.
We visited the following wards as part of the assessment:
Sycamore ward, adult acute ward women with 14 beds
Chester ward, adult psychiatric intensive care unit for women with 10 beds
Birch ward, adult psychiatric intensive care unit for men with 10 beds
We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
We gathered information from patients using the service and their families and/or carers, staff and managers, stakeholders and we also carried out our own observations. We reviewed a range of documents including care records, policies and procedures. We looked at all 33 quality statements.
Acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units
Updated
6 November 2025
We assessed the acute wards for adults of working age and intensive care units at The Priory Middleton St Goerge Hospital on 13 and 14 January 2026. This assessment included an on-site inspection visit.
We assessed this service to review the progress made against the requirement notices that were served on the provider following the inspection in December 2023. The service had made improvements and is no longer in breach of regulations 15 and 17.
We visited the following wards as part of the assessment:
Sycamore ward, adult acute ward women with 14 beds
Chester ward, adult psychiatric intensive care unit for women with 10 beds
Birch ward, adult psychiatric intensive care unit for men with 10 beds.
We rated the service as good overall with requires improvement in safe.
On Sycamore ward we found that there were 3 plastic refuse bags within bins. Two were in the communal dining area and one in the unlocked activity room. The provider was unable to provide evidence they had risk assessed the use of plastic bags on the ward. Plastic bags could potentially be used by patients to ligature and therefore pose a significant risk to patient safety.
This was a breach of regulation 12 Safe Care and Treatment.
The provider immediately removed the bags and audited all the wards at the hospital.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
However, we found the service demonstrated a positive learning culture and staff knew how to safeguard patients from abuse. Environments were clean and staffing was safe and effective. Staff and teams worked well together and were able to evidence how they monitored and improved patient outcomes. The service ensured information was up to date and accessible. Leaders were capable and encouraged staff to speak up. Leaders were committed to improving workforce equity, diversity and inclusion and promoted learning, improvement and innovation.