- Independent mental health service
The Farndon Unit
Report from 4 February 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Forensic inpatient or secure wards
Our view of the service
The Farndon Unit is registered with the Care Quality Commission as an independent mental health hospital. The hospital, ran by Elysium Healthcare Limited, accommodates up to 47 female patients over the age of 18 years. The provider offers assessment, care and treatment to meet the needs of individual patients with a diagnosis of mental illness, personality disorder and learning disability. The location consists of a single building built around an internal garden area. There are five ward areas: Bolero, Courtland, Darcy, Ruby Frost and Aster. The location consists of three core services. Forensic inpatient services, Rehabilitation and Acute inpatient services, we visited 1 ward on this assessment: Bolero ward (Forensic inpatient). This service was last rated as good overall (Published January 2023). We carried out our on-site assessment on 25 September and 26 September 2024. This was an unannounced assessment, which means the provider was not told in advance that we would be attending and assessing the service. During this assessment we looked at 6 quality statements across 2 key questions. Due to assessing 6 quality statements at this visit it means the current rating will remain the same from this assessment. Our new ways of assessing services means that we will assess services more regularly, building a picture of how the service is performing over a period of time. At this assessment we found safety was maintained within the environment, patients felt supported by staff and involved in their care and treatment, managers supported staff, and appropriate processes were in place to ensure managers had oversight of the service.
People's experience of this service
We reviewed 2 patient care and treatment records. Patients felt safe and supported on the ward and staff treated them with dignity and respect. Staff were visible, helpful and approachable. Staff encouraged patients to be involved in their care and treatment, seeing them as individuals with their needs and preferences considered. Patients were encouraged to be as independent as possible, having choice and control about their treatment. They were encouraged to involve family and people who knew them well in their care planning. they were listened to and encouraged to feedback on their experience of care within the service. Everyone involved in their care worked well together. Patients with additional communication needs had access to resources to help capture their voice. Information regarding the patients care, treatment and external resource were available and displayed around the ward.