- Independent mental health service
Pine House Rehabilitation Unit
Report from 23 October 2024 assessment
Contents
Ratings - Long stay or rehabilitation mental health wards for working age adults
Our view of the service
Dates of onsite assessment: 19 November 2024; with additional offsite interviews taking place on 26 to 27 November 2024. Pine House Rehabilitation Unit is a 20-bed hospital for male patients. There are 3 wards across 3 floors: Pine ward on the ground floor; Aspen ward on the first floor; and Lyme ward on the second floor. We carried out an unannounced assessment of all 3 wards. This assessment was a follow up to a warning notice that was issued to the provider following the previous inspection in August 2023. We assessed 15 quality statements across the safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led key questions. Our overall rating for this service remains requires improvement. We identified 3 breaches of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment; premises and equipment; and good governance. Although improvements had been made to the environment since the last inspection, environmental issues regarding maintenance and decoration remained. Ward staff could not locate documentation regarding the safety of the environment, such as the ligature risk assessment, along with patient emergency evacuation plans which would be required in an emergency. Physical health folders contained inconsistent recording, incomplete documentation and gaps in some ongoing checks. Although governance processes and procedures had been implemented following the last inspection, issues in respect of record keeping, documentation and ongoing checks were still identified at this assessment. However, the service had implemented a staff huddle at which essential safety areas of the service were discussed and reviewed. Patients generally felt safe within the service and gave positive feedback about staff and activities. Patients had opportunities to give feedback on the service. Staff gave positive feedback about the culture of the service and the improvements the service had made. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
People's experience of this service
Patients that we spoke to during the assessment were generally positive about the service and their experiences. Patients did not raise any significant concerns with us directly whilst we were on-site. Patients felt that they were treated fairly. One patient stated that staff had high standards, although did comment that they felt high levels of agency staff were used. Patients that we spoke to gave positive feedback about some of the activities within the service, including some trips outside of the service. We made attempts to speak to some further patients, however, they just wished to discuss very specific issues that they wanted support with. We made staff aware of these requests for support during the assessment. We observed some positive interactions between staff and patients in taking time to help them and engaging with them in a friendly and kind manner. We reviewed recent patient compliment forms which gave positive feedback about activities the patients had been on along with praising staff attitudes.