- Independent mental health service
Priory Hospital Suttons Manor
Assessment report published 5 June 2025
Contents
Ratings - Forensic inpatient or secure wards
Our view of the service
The Priory Hospital Suttons Manor is a specialist, forensic low secure service for older aged male patients, aged 50 years and above. The service provides treatment to patients with high-risk forensic histories who are now requiring a step down from high and medium secure services or transfer from prisons whereby their risk has lessened over time due to age. All patients are detained under the Mental Health Act. The hospital focuses on supporting patients in progressing with their personal goals to move into the community or less restrictive environments. Suttons Manor also supports individuals experiencing low level physical health care needs. Suitability of admission is determined on assessment of referral.
Care is provided over 2 13-bedded wards (26 beds in total). South Weald ward has 13 beds of which 10 were occupied at the time of the assessment. Westleigh Heights ward has 13 beds, of which 7 were occupied. Westleigh Heights ward also aims to support adults experiencing low level physical health care needs as well as the elderly and frail alongside their mental health needs.
We carried out this responsive assessment due to receiving information of concern. We assessed 20 quality statements across Safe, Caring, and Well-led key questions and have combined the scores for these areas with scores from the previous assessment.
Date of on-site assessment, 12 March 2025.
During this assessment we spoke with staff including hospital managers, nurses and healthcare assistants. We inspected the environment of the 2 wards and clinic rooms at the hospital. We observed staff and patient interactions on these wards. We reviewed patient care records, and patient prescription charts. We attended a staff handover meeting and reviewed minutes of various meetings, policies and procedures, data and documents relevant to the running of the service.
We rated the service as Good.
People's experience of this service
We spoke with 9 patients. Patient feedback was overall mostly positive.
Patients told us:
They feel safe.
Most patients had no concerns and would know how to raise concerns, if they needed to.
Patients knew their rights.
Most staff were good and treated them well. They had a named nurse for 1:1 time.
Some patients said they were involved in care plans.
Most patients said they had access to advocacy.
However,
Sometimes there were staff shortages, mostly at nights.
One patient told us communication with staff was poor.
Some patients told us that a disruptive individual had taken up a lot of staff time and gave an example of mealtimes being disrupted.
We spoke with 6 carers.
Carers told us:
They felt safe when visiting.
The environment was clean and tidy.
There were good facilities and enough to do.
The quality of food was good.
Staff were good, caring, engaging, friendly and accommodating.
Physical health was well looked after.
There were opportunities to attend ward rounds and reviews.
However,
Whilst most carers knew how to raise a concern should they need to, 2 carers told us they had raised concerns but were not sure what action had been taken, and not all carers knew about the hospital’s complaints process.
One carer was concerned about restrictions on leave.
Two carers said that communication with staff could be better.