The mental health trust serving Brighton and Hove has responded positively to the demands of the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
But the government watchdog said that the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust still “requires improvement” in an official report after a focused inspection.
The trust runs Mill View Hospital, in Hangleton, as well as providing community and outpatient care for thousands of patients.
The CQC said today (Friday 2 June): “The Care Quality Commission has today published a report on Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
“This follows a focused inspection in April to the adult acute inpatient wards which was carried out as part of CQC’s scheduled inspection programme for 2017-18.
“Overall Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is still rated as ‘requires improvement’ overall.
“The full report is available via the following link to the CQC’s website http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RX2.
“Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health services in Sussex and specialist community mental health services for children and young people in Hampshire and Kent and Medway.
“These include two adult social care services and primary medical services for HMP Lewes and HMP Ford.
“At the previous inspection, CQC had identified a number of areas for improvement such as access to psychological therapy for all patients.
“On wards for older people with mental health problems there were mixed-sex wards that were not always managed in accordance with Department of Health guidance on mixed-sex accommodation, though risks were being mitigated on a day-to-day basis.
“In the community there were long waiting times from assessment to treatment within the specialist community mental health services for children and young people and there was a high level of bed occupancy across the acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units.”
Louise Philips, hospital inspection manager for the south east, said: “Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has responded positively to the findings from our previous inspection in September 2016.
“Our inspectors were impressed with the targeted work that had taken place to improve the recruitment of staff in key areas and the introduction of a number of innovative practices across the wards to provide positive support to patients in distress.
“There was excellent work generated around the implementation of quality improvement initiatives to reduce incidents and manage risk to patients.
“The wards had improved their approach to the observation of patients to ensure their safety.
“The risk assessments and monitoring of patients had improved and was consistently good across all the wards.
“There was a really positive atmosphere on the wards, with a real focus on individual patient care and learning from incidents.
“However, there were some areas where further improvements were needed to be improved, particularly in relation to Woodlands unit, where learning from incidents had not been fully embedded and the smoke-free policy had not been implemented to support patients to stop smoking.
“Despite this, CQC are confident of the positive direction of travel for the trust and look forward to returning to see the continued improvements.”
