THE use of a discredited restraint technique by East Lancashire’s mental health services is likely to come under formal scrutiny next month as part of a major inspection.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) confirmed it will visit Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust at the end of April under its beefed up mental health inspection regime, which routinely examines the use of restraint and other restrictive practices.
On Tuesday, an investigation by the Lancashire Telegraph revealed the shocking extent to which mental health patients in Blackburn and Burnley have been subjected to prone restraint, in which they are pinned face-down to the floor.
A series of Freedom of Information requests suggested a huge increase in cases last year, while confidential documents said Lancashire Care was the second highest user of prone restraint in England.
Meanwhile, a whistleblower has pointed to ‘cultural problems’ at the trust, especially in East Lancashire.and further data pointed to a disproportionate use of prone restraint and other restrictive practices in the trust’s eastern wards The CQC cited the excessive use of prone restraint among the key reasons for rating Norfolk and Suffolk’s mental health trust as ‘inadequate’ last month, after which the organisation was placed in special measures, while Calderstones Hospital in Whalley was also slammed by the regulator in December for similar reasons.
Lancashire Care said it has been working on a two-year programme to end its use of prone restraint.
It aims to stop using the technique in April.
When asked if the timeline was a coincidence, or whether the trust had chosen the date because of the imminent inspection, a spokesman said: “The trust’s Reducing Restrictive Practices Programme was approved before we were notified by the CQC that they would be undertaking an inspection in April.”
The clinical commissioning groups for Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire, which fund the services at Pendleview, on the Royal Blackburn Hospital site, and mental health wards at Burnley General Hospital, have not yet responded to the investigation into restraint methods.
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