Updated 28 July 2021
The Priory Hospital Middleton St George is a 101-bed hospital that provides 24-hour support seven days a week for people aged 18 years and over with mental health problems, personality disorders or both.
Patient accommodation comprises:
- Birch ward – psychiatric intensive care unit for men (12 beds)
- Chester ward – psychiatric intensive care unit for women (12 beds)
- Oak ward – acute admission ward for women (15 beds)
- Thoburn ward – acute admission ward for both women and men (22 beds)
- Dalton ward – locked rehabilitation ward for women (13 beds)
- Hazelwood ward – locked rehabilitation/personality disorders ward for women (13 beds)
- Linden ward – locked rehabilitation ward for men (15 beds).
The hospital director is the registered manager and has been in post since February 2020.
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.
There have been 12 inspections carried out at the Priory Hospital Middleton St George in the last nine years.
The most recent inspection took place in September 2020. This was a focused responsive inspection of Hazelwood, Oak, Thoburn, Birch and Chester wards following concerns raised by whistle blowers and notifications from the provider relating to patients being able to self-harm and ligature whilst on enhanced observations. We looked at specific key lines of enquiry issues under the safe and well led key questions.
This resulted in this location being rated as inadequate overall and placed into special measures because we identified serious concerns. These included concerns about:
- low staffing numbers
- the competency and training of agency staff
- the poor quality of documentation on the wards
- staff undertaking patient observations for excessive hours
- staff being unable to take breaks during 12-hour shifts
- a lack of management oversight.
We also took enforcement action against the provider and required the management team to provide fortnightly updates on how it was addressing the issues we had identified. We issued requirement notices in relation to the issues we found within the acute and psychiatric intensive care unit service.
What people who use the service say
We spoke with 46 patients and the overwhelming majority felt staff gave patients help, emotional support and advice when they needed it. However, on Oak ward we observed staff did not respond to two patients who had made frequent requests for help.
Patients said staff supported them to understand and manage their own care, treatment or condition.
Most patients we spoke with said staff treated them well and behaved kindly. However, four patients on Oak ward said some staff members could be abrupt towards them at times.
Staff involved patients and, in most cases, gave them access to their care planning and risk assessments. However, four out of the 46 patients who spoke with us within the hospital said they had never seen their care plan.
We spoke with two carers within the long stay rehabilitation service. The first carer said that staff had informed them about the change to their loved one’s medicine. A second carer told us that they had concerns their loved one’s medicine was ineffective and had been told they would have to wait until the following week to see a doctor about it. We raised this with the provider and the patient was seen by a doctor later that day, had their medicine changed and was told they would be discharged the following week.
We saw a summary of the results of feedback provided on discharge over the previous 12 months. The results showed 92 per cent of patients who completed the survey agreed staff respected their privacy and dignity, were caring and supportive and communicated well with them. Eighty-five per cent of patients agreed they felt supported to stay in contact with the important people in their lives. Eighty-five per cent of patients would recommend the service to family or friends and felt staff were caring and supportive. The results also showed 85 per cent of patients agreed the skills they had learnt would help them manage their life as they move on from treatment.