A NEW report has revealed that people receiving services by Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust on their secure wards felt safe – but more needs to be done.

Care Quality Commission Inspectors visited the Fromeside unit on Bristol’s Blackberry Hill Hospital site after concerns were raised about the safety and the quality of the services.

Fromeside is caring for people from all across the country including Wiltshire and Swindon with a mental illness and/or personality disorder who also have a criminal history or have risks and behaviours that mean they cannot be treated in mainstream mental health services.

They inspected five medium secure wards in December 2020 to assess the issues identified.

The report found that the service provided safe care with staff providing a range of treatments suitable to the needs of the patients. But it revealed that teams did not always work well together and communication was poor between some medical staff and nursing staff. Some records including mental capacity assessments and details were not always kept in care files.

Director of Nursing and Quality, at AWP Julie Kerry said: “We are pleased with the outcome of this recent inspection in which our secure services continue to be rated good.

“Our primary focus is always to provide high quality care to our patients, so for this to be recognised by CQC inspectors is good news for the people we care for, their families and carers, as well as our staff working across AWP.

“We recognise we still have work to do and we have plans in place to address the points raised by the CQC so that we can continue to further improve our care planning and delivery.

“I would like to thank all our staff who were involved in the unannounced inspection for their hard work and commitment during what has been a busy and challenging 12 months for everyone working in across the NHS.”