Victoria Gardens

Updated 22 April 2022

Victoria Gardens is an independent hospital for up to 40 men and women with mental health conditions. The service mainly provided rehabilitation for patients with complex mental health needs, but it had recently changed one of the wards to an acute inpatient ward.

The service has three rehabilitation wards:

• Dovecot ward – eight beds for men over 18 years old
• Roby ward – 12 beds for women, usually over 50 years old
• Sefton ward – seven beds for men over 18 years old

The service had one acute ward:

• Bluebell ward – nine beds for men over 18 years old

The service also had four self-contained flats for men as part of the rehabilitation pathway.

All patients are funded by the NHS. The acute inpatient ward was set up to provide beds for a specific NHS trust. Patients may be detained under the Mental Health Act or admitted voluntarily; most patients on the rehabilitation wards were detained under the Mental Health Act.

Victoria Gardens registered with the Care Quality Commission in February 2019. It is provided by Elysium Healthcare Limited. It is registered to provide the regulated activities: assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983; and treatment of disease disorder or injury.

The service has a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission.

We have inspected Victoria Gardens once since registration in November 2019. It was rated as good overall, and good in all five domains: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

This was an unannounced comprehensive inspection.

The main service provided by this hospital was long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults. Where our findings on long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults – for example, management arrangements – also apply to other services, we do not repeat the information but cross-refer to the long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults service.

What people who use the service say

The feedback we received was from a small number of patients and carers, but was overwhelmingly positive. Patients and carers told us that they were involved in their care, and found staff supportive and approachable.

Patients had access to an advocacy service, and patients and carers were able to raise their concerns with managers and staff.

Fortnightly community meetings were well attended by patients and staff. They had standing agendas, and patients made requests and suggestions, raised concerns, and were given feedback on actions from previous meetings.

Updated 22 April 2022

Our rating of this service stayed the same. We rated it as good because:

• The service provided safe care. The ward environments were safe and clean. The wards had enough nurses and doctors. Staff assessed and managed risk well. They minimised the use of restrictive practices, managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
• Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans informed by a comprehensive assessment. They provided a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the patients cared for in a mental health rehabilitation ward and in line with national guidance about best practice. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The ward teams included or had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of patients on the wards. Managers ensured that these staff received most of their training, supervision and appraisal. The ward staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with those outside the ward who would have a role in providing aftercare.
• Staff understood and discharged their roles and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
• Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood the individual needs of patients. They actively involved patients and families and carers in care decisions.
• Staff planned and managed discharge well and liaised well with services that would provide aftercare. As a result, discharge was rarely delayed for other than a clinical reason.
• The long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults worked to a recognised model of mental health rehabilitation. The acute ward had clear operational protocols that had been developed with the commissioning NHS trust. It was well led and the governance processes ensured that ward procedures ran smoothly.

Updated 22 April 2022

We have reported and rated all the wards at Victoria Gardens together within this report. Please see the overall summary for an overview of our findings.