Latest news with #NHFT
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
High-security hospital 'still needs to improve'
A high-security psychiatric prison is still in need in need of "urgent improvement" the healthcare watchdog has said. Rampton Hospital, run by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) has been rated "requires improvement" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced inspection in March. It was rated "inadequate" in January 2024 with the NHS trust under close scrutiny at the time over its care of Valdo Calocane, who carried out the Nottingham attacks in June 2023. While the CQC found some "clear improvements" had been made at the hospital, it said the trust had work to do "to address staff shortages and support staff". Rampton provides services to people who are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 and are classified as having a learning disability, mental illness or psychopathic disorder. The latest CQC visit of the site follows a series of inspections that began in June last year as part of a 12-month inspection programme the watchdog has carried out at the wider trust. This was prompted by a special review into NHFT for which the final report was published in August last year. During the latest inspection, staff reported incidents where the hospital wards were "not meting safe staffing levels" with therapies and activities "frequently cancelled" due to staffing shortages. Managers told inspectors the wards "hardly ever" had the right number, experience and gender of staff to keep patients and staff safe. Between 1 March 2024 and 27 February 2025 staff submitted 777 incident forms where the reasons stated were "clinically unsafe staffing", the report said. Sometimes staff were working alone at night, leaving them unable to take breaks and some unhappy they were regularly moved from their ward to support others. Managers told inspectors lone working left staff feeling "anxious, isolated and unsafe". In the report, released on Friday, the CQC said it had found four breaches of regulation during its latest inspection, related to safe care, safeguarding, privacy and dignity, premises and equipment and safe staffing. The watchdog said it had asked the trust to submit a plan showing what action it was taking to address the concerns but added it had provided assurances around staffing concerns. Leaders at the trust showed it had measures in place to to minimise lone working and that the service was in the middle of a large recruitment drive. The CQC added staff at Rampton respected people's privacy and dignity, were responsive to people's needs, provided help, emotional advice and advice when they needed it and worked well with partner organisations. Greg Rielly, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: "We have told leaders at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust where urgent improvements are needed. "The service needs to build on the positive areas in our report and focus on making the service safer for people." In April, the BBC revealed the trust announced plans to withdraw from a contract to provide healthcare to prison inmates at seven jails across the East Midlands and an immigration centre. Dr Susan Elcock, executive medical director and deputy chief executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said the service was pleased the CQC reflected on improvements it had made. She added: "We welcome inspections as they are an important way to understand how we are doing and highlight areas where we can do better. "Where the CQC told us we needed to take urgent action, we immediately took steps to address the issues raised. "The CQC noted among the improvements those relating to physical health support and described care plans as personalised and truly reflecting patients' needs. "Whilst we recognise we still have a way to go, I would like to thank colleagues for their work to date. "We are absolutely committed to making further improvements to ensure our services consistently provide excellent, safe care and will continue working closely with the CQC, our colleagues, our patients and their families to achieve this." Follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@ or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210. Troubled NHS trust to quit prison health contract Secure hospital is improving, report says Inspectors take action against psychiatric hospital Care Quality Commission (CQC) Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
BBC News
04-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Northampton families 'living in limbo' on Send waiting lists
A mother has said her son's two-and-a-half year wait for an autism assessment has been like "living in limbo" with "no light at the end of the tunnel".Shannon, 37, from Northampton, said her son, Cassian, eight, was put on the waiting list in August then, the county's average waiting time for assessments of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has almost doubled. The Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) said it had seen a large number of referrals following the Covid-19 pandemic, which had led to an increase in wait times. It added that it was working with system partners to try to increase its capacity for assessments and reduce waits. 'He wasn't taken seriously' Cassian received a diagnosis for ADHD in November, but is still awaiting an assessment for said that made it harder for schools and organisations to understand his needs."Teachers don't show the same level of understanding and empathy without that diagnosis. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases he wasn't taken seriously," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service."You just feel like you're living in limbo all the time. "You get letters with no timeline, no date, no real indication of anything that's going to happen." According to a Freedom of Information request, in 2024 people were waiting an average of 530 days for an assessment - almost a year and a compares with 287 days in reported that 4,099 children were waiting for assessments in March 2025, up from 2,497 children just 18 months earlier. Shannon said it felt like a "massive victory" when Cassian received his ADHD said: "The sooner you have that diagnosis, the sooner you can put these therapies in place that help them get to where they should be. "It feels never-ending as a Send parent (special educational needs and disabilities) – that there is no light at the end of the tunnel." 'My children get one childhood' Northamptonshire mum Sam, 46, said she had to fight for all three of her children to get Send assessments and specialist provision, but that the wait for her youngest daughter, Eva-Rose, 10, had been the most difficult."Just some transparency is needed. To this day, I have no idea where my child is on that list," Sam said Eva-Rose had been waiting for more then two years on the ADHD and autism pathway, making it harder to access potential support such as further speech and language therapy. Ms Flitton "actively sought out" a "Right to Choose pathway", which allows patients facing long waiting times to go to private should get an assessment in the next 12 said: "If I didn't act, we would still be sat on a non-existent, no-outlook NHS waitlist. "My children get one childhood and that should not include watching their mother on her knees begging for scraps of support," she added. An NHFT spokesperson said the increase in referrals and waiting times was "in line with national trends"."We recognise the challenge this can have for families and are working with system partners to consider how capacity for assessments can be increased and waiting times reduced," they trust said support was provided to young people and families on the waiting list."The feedback from families on this support has been predominantly positive. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide regular updates on individual children's place on the waitlist, as the team's capacity is focused on carrying out assessments." Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
