11, 12 and 21 January 2016
During a routine inspection
We rated All Saints Hospital as good because:
• The ward environments were clean and well maintained.
• There was a strong deaf culture with a proportion of staff who were deaf working with deaf patients.
• Staff were committed to providing high quality care to patients.
• Staff had a good understanding of the physical and relational security arrangements of working on the low secure wards.
• The open rehabilitation ward had three types of rooms to promote patients to move towards independent living; patients moved from bedrooms, to bedsits to fully equipped flats as part of their recovery.
• Care plans were comprehensive and risk management plans were detailed on all the files we looked at.
• There was an emphasis on promoting physical health through the employment of a designated nurse.
• Patients were involved in their care with the support of a specialist independent deaf advocate.
• Patients also had a strong say in how the hospital was run through the patients council and were working together with staff to produce recovery tools adapted to the needs of deaf patients.
• There was effective multidisciplinary input especially given the size of the hospital.
• There were robust audits in place and managers were well cited on any issues within the hospital and were working to address these.
• The hospital treated a wide range of patients’ needs and adapted their models of care well to meet these needs.
• Staff felt well supported and morale was high.
However we found that
• There were often delays in patients being discharged from the hospital because there wasn’t the range of appropriate deaf community services available. This was beyond the full control of the hospital.
• Patients felt at times that when the hospital used agency staff that they could not always communicate with them because the agency staff did not have signing skills.
• There was a foothold in the low secure fence which had been identified but not been fully resolved. Patients were observed at all times whilst in the areas and presented with no or low risk of absconding.