The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published a report following an unannounced inspection of acute wards for adults of working age and psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, in March.
Inspectors visited the service due to concerns CQC had received relating to the management of people’s leave from the wards at the hospital.
During this inspection, CQC saw systems and processes had been implemented by the trust to support the staff to manage these concerns and these were being embedded into the day to day running of the wards.
As this was a focused inspection the service has not been re-rated and remains requires improvement overall as does the rating for safe. Effective, caring and responsive were not included in this inspection and remain rated as good. Well-led was also not included in this inspection and remains rated as requires improvement.
The overall rating for Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust is not affected by this inspection and remains good.
Inspectors found:
- People did not feel they were exposed to unnecessary restrictions. Staff avoided using restraint by using de-escalation techniques and restrained people only when these failed and when necessary to keep the person or others safe
- There were good systems in place to record leave arrangements for people leaving the ward
- Quality improvement plans had been developed and embedded in order to address the areas of concern identified from serious incidents that have occurred on the wards since January 2024
- People felt that staff were always there when they needed them and they had been treated positively with dignity and respect.
The report will be published on CQC’s website in the next few days.