Friday, February 17th, 2012

Apology for care facility failings

Care at Owen House was found to be failing to meet 'essential standards' of care following an unannounced Care Quality Commission inspection to one of its wards last October.

Moderate concern was also raised about Knightshayes learning disability wards at the Whipton Hospital.

Alison Moores, director of nursing and practice at Devon Partnership NHS Trust, has apologised for the failings and said immediate action had been taken.

She said: "We have made huge strides forward in recent years to ensure we are delivering safe, high quality services and that we are meeting people's individual needs. In the vast majority of cases we are confident that we are achieving this aim. However, it is clear that some aspects of the care being delivered to people with a learning disability at these two sites was not good enough — and we sincerely apologise for this."

Owen House looks after adult men with complex mental health needs.

The CQC raised one major and one moderate concern about care at Owen House.

These were mainly about person care plans.

Evidence showed that some care plans were not person centred, were not written in plain English and in the majority of cases did not identify a goal.

A spokesman said: "We found no evidence of patient involvement in developing the care plans and found nine instances where care plans had not been reviewed in 12 months."

Ms Moores said: "We have taken immediate steps to address the shortcomings at both sites and are confident that we are now compliant with the CQC's standards. We will, of course, be monitoring the services very closely to ensure that the standards continue to be met."

From the This is Devon Website. To view please follow this link: http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Apology-care-facility-failings/story-15244240-detail/story.html

Topics: Care, CQC, NHS Trusts