Franklyn Hospital

Updated 17 April 2014

Franklyn Hospital is on the outskirts of Exeter. We inspected two wards at Franklyn Hospital which provide services to older people. Belvedere ward is a 16-bedded assessment unit for people living with dementia, and serves the community of Devon. Rougemont ward provides assessment and treatment for adults aged 65 and over with mental health difficulties who live in Exeter, Mid & East Devon.

Devon Partnership NHS Trust which is a Mental Health and Learning Disability Trust was established in 2001 and has six hospital sites across Devon and Torbay. The trust employs approximately 2,500 staff and also has 100 staff assigned from Devon County Council and Torbay Unitary Authority, including social workers and support workers. Devon Partnership Trust serves a large geographical area with a population of more than 890,000 people and has an annual budget of around £130 million. The trust services fall into three areas of care:

Mental Wellbeing and Access – for people experiencing a common mental health problem for the first time who need more help than their GP can provide.

Recovery and Independent Living – for people with longer-term and more complex needs.

Urgent and Inpatient Care – for people with severe mental health difficulties, in crisis or experiencing distress and who may require a stay in hospital.

At any one time, the trust provides care for around 19,000 people in Devon and Torbay. The vast majority of these people receive care and treatment in the community. A small number may need a short spell of hospital care to support their recovery if they become very unwell and an even smaller number will have severe and enduring needs that require long-term care. Teams include psychiatrists, psychologists, specialist nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and support workers.

This report describes our judgement of whether Franklyn Hospital delivers safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services. It is based on a combination of what we found when we inspected, information from our ‘Intelligent Monitoring’ system, and information given to us from patients, the public and other organisations. 

Updated 17 April 2014

Franklyn Hospital is on the outskirts of Exeter. We inspected two wards at Franklyn Hospital which provide services to older people. Belvedere ward is a 16-bedded assessment unit for people living with dementia, and serves the community of Devon. Rougemont ward provides assessment and treatment for adults aged 65 and over with mental health difficulties who live in Exeter, Mid & East Devon.

We found many good areas of practice at Franklyn Hospital. The services provided a safe and secure place for people to stay, where staff cared for them in the least restrictive way. Although both wards we inspected had qualified nurse vacancies there were sufficient staff available to support people. Where people did not have mental capacity to make decisions, appropriate steps were taken to promote their rights through the use of best interest meetings and the involvement of carers.

People using services had multi-disciplinary assessments, which took account of their needs. People using the service and their carers where appropriate, were involved in discussions about treatment options available and decisions about ongoing care. People using services and their carers all told us the staff treated them with kindness and respect.

Staff told us that they had the training and support they needed for their roles. There was a positive and open culture within the staff team and good communication with staff from other services. Incidents were recorded and investigated appropriately and learning from incidents and complaints took place.

The hospital could improve the service for people by ensuring the arrangements to access physiotherapy and tissue viability is formally arranged. The hospital could also consider giving carers of people using the service on Belvedere ward access to further support.