An emergency mental health unit in Salford has been slammed as watchdogs found dirty rooms and a ‘blood stain’ on the wall.
An inspection of Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Trust’s psychiatric intensive care and acute adult mental health units, one of which is based in Salford, found that some area were unclean and poorly maintained, with some patients feeling ‘unsafe’.
According to the Care Quality Commission, blood was found on the bathroom wall of one ward in Salford’s Meadowbrook unit, which is located at Salford Royal Hospital.
The CQC inspector said: “Wards were not always clean. There were several dirty bathrooms and there was blood on the wall on Chaucer ward.
“There were dirty dormitory curtains in one location and no clear process was in place for washing these.
“The sharps bin was overfull on one ward. There was an unpleasant smell on some of the wards. We also saw blue tack, which was a restricted item, in use on some of the wards.”
Gaps were found in medication records with one patient found to be taking an incorrect dose. Some patients also told inspectors about ‘assaults’ taking place on the wards, with staff not always intervening in conflicts or when others patients act aggressively.
Inspectors found several wards were not clean and had an ‘unpleasant smell’. The reports refer to ‘dirty toilets and sinks’ and ‘poorly maintained bathrooms’.
There were also concerns over fire safety, with the inspector saying: “Patients were smoking on the wards, there had been several fires on the premises and regular fire drills had not taken place.
“Staff had not always followed systems and processes to prescribe and administer medicines safely.”
In other units across the trust, anti-barricade doors did not open both ways for three of the rooms.
Inspectors found staff across the services inspected were not always using anti-bacterial hand gel, which was not always available – while medical equipment was not cleaned as regularly as it should be.
According to the report, half of the health and safety inspections across the acute wards for adults and psychiatric intensive care units inspected were at least three years out of date.
There were also concerns with medicine storage, staff were not recording the minimum and maximum temperatures of medicine fridges. The report stated that staff were not following the trusts policy in relation to rapid tranquillisation, in relation to the timeliness of completing physical observations and the availability of these records.
Staff were praised by some patients and their relatives, but others said that they were not always treated with ‘kindness’ and ‘compassion’. It found that some patients said staff did not always maintain dignity, for example, not knocking before entering a bed space.
Patients’ cultural needs were not considered in some cases and staff did not always consider the needs of transgender patients, the inspectors found. Sometimes, staff struggled to meet the needs of autistic patients too and support was not always in place for them.
Nutrition and hydration needs were not always being met either with the report citing one incident where staff did not respond to a patient who was physically unwell. The trust was also criticised for not always involving patients and their loved ones in care plans.
The report added: “Staff did not always feel listened to and some staff raised concerns about racism and felt this was not being addressed.
“Staff also told inspectors of experiencing burnout and felt there was not enough time to carry out their roles.”
However, most of the staff felt the culture on the wards had improved since the previous inspection.
Managers at the rehabilitation services acknowledged that the wards had been through some significant changes with new processes and systems introduced, but there was a feeling that a lot of these changes were enacted following feedback from the other inpatient services and were not completely suited towards them.
Salli Midgley, recently appointed Chief Nurse at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We accepted in full the findings of the CQC inspections from their visits in March 2024 to services including our acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) and in June 2024 to our services for long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults.
“We recognise the failings identified in the reports and in the months that have passed since the visits we continue to work hard to ensure the necessary improvements are being made.
“The Trust has a new Executive Leadership Team in place who are working proactively with clinical teams to drive the improvements required, reporting progress monthly to the CQC. The care and safety of our service users is our priority, and we are working closely with our staff, service users, carers and partners to ensure we continue to listen, learn and improve.”
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