Cygnet Newham House

Updated 24 October 2022

Cygnet Newham House is an independent specialist assessment and neurorehabilitation hospital provided by Cygnet (OE) Limited. The hospital, located in Middlesbrough, provides treatment for women over the age of 18 years who have experienced a brain injury after birth. It also offers those diagnosed with a progressive neurological disease like Huntington’s Disease, a longer-term placement to support and help manage the progression of their symptoms.

The hospital consists of 12 hospital beds and 8 transitional care beds providing patients with a one care pathway through their rehabilitation.

The hospital is registered to carry out the following activities:

• Assessment or medical treatment for persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• Treatment of disease, disorder and or injury

The hospital had a registered manager in place at the time of the inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2014 and associated regulations about how the service is managed.

At the time of the inspection, there were 13 patients admitted to the hospital. Of these, five were detained under the Mental Health Act, five were subject to a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard and three patients were admitted informally.

Cygnet Newham House was registered by the Care Quality Commission on 11 September 2020. This is the first comprehensive inspection since its registration. However, the hospital has been subject to a Mental Health Act monitoring visit since its registration. We took the findings of the Mental Health Act monitoring visit into account during this inspection.

What people who use the service say

During our inspection, we spoke with five patients and five relatives or carers.

Patients told us they felt safe in the hospital and that the staff looked after them well. They were able to go out and said that staff encouraged them to be involved in various activities. They liked the food and enjoyed having their hair, make up and nails done.

The feedback from all the relatives we spoke with was positive. They recognised improvements in the progress made in their family member’s presentation. They felt the treatment provided was excellent. All relatives felt involved in decisions, they were invited to meetings about their family member, kept updated and were regularly asked for feedback. They told us staff were responsive, respectful and polite and felt they genuinely cared for the patients.

Updated 24 October 2022

We rated this service as good because:

• The service provided safe care. The hospital environment was safe and clean. The hospital had enough nurses and doctors. Staff assessed and managed risk well. They minimised the use of restrictive practices 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 and in line with national guidance about best practice. Staff engaged in clinical audit to evaluate the quality of care they provided.
• The staff teams included or had access to the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of patients in the hospital. Staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with those outside the hospital 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 service was well-led and the governance processes ensured that procedures ran smoothly.

However:

• Not all staff had up to date appraisals in place in line with the providers policy.
• Staff had not clearly recorded details of one-to-one sessions between the patient and their named nurse.
• Staff had not updated all patient’s medicine cards to reflect their current status (e.g. detention, informal of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard).
• Staff did not ensure capacity assessments to treatment, for patients who were informal or on a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard, contained the proposed treatment they were assessed for.
• Staff did not ensure capacity to treatment assessments for patients were easily available in the prescription folder.
• Staff had not reported all non-patient incidents such as administration issues which may affect the effective running of the hospital.

Updated 24 October 2022