A new report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into West London NHS Trust which offers mental health services to residents in Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham and Hounslow has found those using its service “felt listened to and involved in their care”.
The CQC inspection was carried in November 2023 and looked at the trust’s mental health single point of access (SPA) service and two crisis assessment and treatment teams (CATTs).
The SPA provides a 24 hour telephone triage service for referring people into mental health services. The CATTs support people in mental health crisis and according to the Trust aims to support people at home instead of having to go to hospital.
Overall, the inspectors said of its visit: “We rated the trust as good for effective, responsive and well-led.”
Among the key findings from its inspection:
- “People using the service felt listened to and involved in their care. Staff were understanding, supportive, calm, caring, and friendly.”
- “Leaders had the skills, knowledge, and experience to perform their roles. They had a good understanding of the services they managed and were visible in the service and approachable for people using the service and staff.”
- “The service managed safety incidents well. Staff recognised incidents and reported them appropriately. Managers investigated incidents and shared lessons learned with the whole team and the wider service.”
The CQC also said of its inspection:
- “The trust still has a number of sites which are not fit for delivering modern health services.”
- “The trust had not paid sufficient attention to its child and adolescent mental health ward (The Wells Unit) whilst it was waiting for a decision from commissioners and this had led to a drop in standards. The trust gave six months’ notice to NHS England to end the contract shortly after our site visit concluded.”
Inspectors did not re-rate the service following the latest inspection and the overall rating for West London NHS Trust remains as good.
Dr Christopher Hiltont. Photo: West London NHS Trust
In a statement, Dr Christopher Hilton, chief operating officer for local and specialist services at West London NHS Trust said: “We’re pleased to have retained our overall rating of ‘Good’ following this latest announced focused inspection from the CQC, relating to our mental health single point of access (SPA) service and crisis assessment treatment teams (CATTs).”
Dr Hilton added: “The feedback from the report was that service users felt listened to and found our staff supportive, caring and understanding and we were pleased that the inspectors commented favourably on examples of learning, improvement and innovation. We welcome this feedback and will be working rapidly to address the recommendations, as we aim to offer the highest quality of services to the communities of West London.”
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https://ealing.news/health-wellbeing/west-london-nhs-trust-gets-new-report-from-cqc-for-its-mental-health-services/
