Lancashire's mental health service 'weak'

6:42pm Tuesday 22nd July 2008

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LANCASHIRE'S major mental health service provider has been rated as “weak” by an independent watchdog.

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health services for adults and older people as well as substance misuse services across the county, was given the lowest rating in a survey by the Healthcare Commission.

Trust bosses said they were “disappointed but not surprised” at the result.

The review looked at each of the country’s 69 NHS trusts which provide acute inpatient mental health services, and rated them as excellent, good, fair or weak.

Eleven were found to be weak.

The commission looked at four areas: safety; involving patients and carers in treatment plans; focusing on the needs of the individual; and providing an effective care pathway.

Trust chief executive Finlay Robertson said: “We are disappointed but not surprised by the results.”

“The survey was carried out about a year ago and points to areas which needed to be improved. Since then we have made significant improvements, in particular with regards to safety and involving service users and carers in their care and treatment.”

He said that over £1million has since been invested to make safety improvements on adult wards, and the number of assaults on staff has halved in the past 12 months.

Changes have also been made on wards to make the service more responsive to people’s needs, and a carer’s charter is being developed, he said.

Other measures taken include satisfaction surveys given out to people on discharge.

He added: “We recognise that there is still some work to do.

"Over the next 10 years all existing inpatient units will be replaced at a cost of over £150 million.”