Archived: Braintree Community Hospital Ward

Braintree Community Hospital ward (Courtauld ward) is a 24 bedded facility with an additional four day-treatment beds within the site of Braintree Community Hospital. This inpatient service provides rehabilitation and end of life care for adults. It also offers day case admission for patients undergoing blood and medication transfusions.

We chose to inspect Braintree Community Hospital Ward as part of the first pilot phase of the new inspection process we are introducing for community health services. Braintree Community Hospital Ward was last inspected in April 2013 when we found it to be meeting the five standards we reviewed.

In general, we found that Braintree Community Hospital ward provided safe care. People were protected from abuse and avoidable harm. Whilst mechanisms were in place to monitor, report and learn from safety incidents, there were inconsistencies in staff practice, resulting in under-reporting.  The staff skill mix was inadequate with a high use of agency staff.

Staff said that they had good training and development opportunities although clinical supervision arrangements were not as robust.  Staff spoke with passion about their work and demonstrated commitment to provide the best care they could.

Patients and their families were central to making decisions about their care and the support they needed. The majority of patients and their relatives were positive about the care and treatment they had received, and we saw some good examples of staff delivering compassionate care to patients and their families.

Although most staff felt very well supported by their managers, we had concerns in regards to the quality of ward leadership and clinical supervision arrangements were not robust.