Archived: Bridgewater CHCFT HMP Wymott

Updated 30 July 2019

HM Prison Wymott is a Category C men's training prison, located in the village of Ulnes Walton, in Lancashire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service. It accommodates up to 1176 adult male prisoners

Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been commissioned by NHS England to provide primary health care services, including GP and dental services to the prison population at HMP Wymott, since April 2017. The trust is also commissioned by NHS England on behalf of Lancashire County Council, to provide social care services within the prison. The trust is registered with CQC to provide the regulated activities of Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury at the prison.

In July 2018 we undertook a comprehensive inspection of the service in response to concerns and issued five Requirement Notices to the trust. We issued the following Requirement Notices, Regulation 9 Person centred care, Regulation 10 Dignity and respect, Regulation 12 Safe care and treatment, Regulation 17 Good governance and Regulation 18 Staffing. The report from the comprehensive inspection can be found on our website at: https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/RY2U2

Updated 30 July 2019

We carried out an announced focused inspection of healthcare services provided by Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust at HMP Wymott on the 7 and 8 May 2019.

The purpose of this focused inspection was to determine if the healthcare services provided by the trust were meeting the legal requirements of the Requirement Notices that we issued in July 2018 and to find out if patients were receiving safe care and treatment. At this inspection we found the provider was meeting the regulations.

We do not currently rate services provided in prisons.

At this inspection we found:

• Healthcare staff were appropriately trained, for example, in safeguarding and intermediate life support.
• The availability of chaperones was promoted in healthcare and patients could request a chaperone to be present during examinations.
• The arrangements for managing medicines kept people safe.
• There were more formalised arrangements to share with staff the learning from adverse events.
• Prisoners received an assessment of their immediate and ongoing healthcare needs at the point of reception into the prison.
• Healthcare staff worked together and with other health and social care professionals effectively to deliver care and treatment.
• Prisoners’ attendance at healthcare appointments continued to be monitored regularly and analysed.
• Healthcare staff told us since the appointment of the director for health and justice and the acting head of healthcare, they felt better supported and listened to.
• Communication and information sharing with the prison had improved since the appointment of a healthcare governor.
• Managers had put in place a process for supervision, but more time was needed to assess the full impact of the changes.
• Healthcare managers closely monitored mandatory training and the uptake by staff had improved.
• Healthcare managers had effective oversight of key areas of service provision, including the continuation of medicine supplies to patients.
• Healthcare staff held a monthly service user forum. Patients reported good communication from healthcare managers about service developments and improvements.
• The introduction of bi-monthly health and justice bulletins was an effective means to sharing information about key developments in the service and plans for the service.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Inform patients as soon as practicable of the outcome of and results of clinical investigations.
• Ensure that all clinical areas, in which primary healthcare nursing staff provide treatments and medicines, meet infection prevention standards and do not compromise patient safety.
• Continue to monitor dental waiting times, including managing and mitigating the risk to patients.