Statement in response to CQC Inspection Report of our Community Mental Health Teams
Statement
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust said:
“We fully accept the findings of the CQC report, following their inspection of our Manchester-based Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs) in October 2022. We sincerely apologise to those service users whose experience of our care and treatment fell below the highest standards we strive for.
“Our community services have experienced unprecedented challenges recently, including significantly higher referral rates and staff shortages, which reflect the national picture. However, following this inspection last autumn we recognised the seriousness of the concerns raised by the CQC and immediately took action to address them. We have since made a number of tangible improvements to our Manchester-based CMHTs, including in key areas such as safe staffing, risk management and care planning, medicines management and physical healthcare.
“The CQC have again re-inspected our Manchester-based CMHTs in January and February 2023, and we are pleased to report that their initial feedback has been much more positive, acknowledging the improvements we have made since last autumn. Following that recent inspection, the CQC identified no urgent areas of concern, which is a sign of progress underway and testament to the Trust’s commitment to making tangible changes for the benefit of our service users.
“We will continue to work closely with the CQC to ensure that these improvements are maintained and expanded. We will also continue to prioritise recruitment to our staff vacancies, so that our services have the appropriate levels of capacity, resource, skills and expertise to provide the best possible care in the future.”
Background information:
This report relates to CQC inspection which took place in October 2022.
Improvements since October 2022 include:
Safe staffing:
- Immediately stabilising our CMHTs through redeployment of staff and agency use.
- A robust recruitment and retention action plan is in place, with new posts having already been recruited into the team.
- Working closely with other community services (such as the Home-Based Treatment Teams) to ensure all urgent assessments are actioned promptly.
Risk management and care planning:
- Working closely with the Waiting Well hubs to ensure that all those who are waiting for an appointment are supported, and are aware of the urgent services available should their mental health change.
- A package of care planning and risk assessment training for Care Coordinators is now in place. Further bespoke training for Support, Time and Recovery Workers is in development.
- A refreshed audit process to ensure strong risk management across the board is in development.
- Innovative technology to support with care planning and risk management is in development.
Medicines management and physical healthcare:
- A full action plan is now in place. Immediate improvements include the establishment of a new medicines management audit system, and the establishment of on-site clinics for service users to book into for physical health monitoring, with dedicated pharmacy support in place.
