'People shouldn't have to live in an environment with these poor conditions'

CARE QUALITY COMMISSION SLAMS HOSPITAL WHERE THREE YOUNG WOMEN DIED

- HELENA VESTY

MENTAL health services for children and young people at a hospital have been criticised following a watchdog inspection.

Care for children and young people at Cheadle Royal Hospital, also known as the Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal, has been rated ‘inadequate’ following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The regulator carried out an unannounced inspection amid ‘concerns about safety’. The inspection followed the deaths of three young women within weeks of each other at the Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal, but it is not known if it was triggered by them.

Mental health blogger Beth Matthews, 26, Lauren Bridges, 20, and Deseree Fitzpatrick, 30, all died at the psychiatric hospital last year – although their deaths are not thought to be linked.

During the January inspection, breaches were found in relation to the ‘safe care and treatment’; ‘premises and equipment’; ‘systems’; and ‘staffing’ categories at child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS) services.

The now-published findings reveal that high levels of restraint were being used at the facility, that the health of patients was not being monitored after tranquilisation, nor were side-effects of medications being looked at.

Cheadle Royal, run by Affinity Healthcare Limited, is a 150-bed hospital with 13 wards which provides care to people with ‘diverse nursing needs’, says the CQC. That includes adults with acute and psychiatric intensive care needs, personality disorders, eating disorders and adults requiring long stay rehabilitation.

This inspection was carried out on three CAMHS wards – Woodlands, Orchard and Meadows.