A sharply critical report of Northern Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust, upheld in the past as a national model for other mental health services, was published this week by the Commission for Health Improvement.
The report said the risk of aggression and violence was a major concern for both staff and patients, with staff given little training in how to assess risk or handle potentially violent patients. The trust must take urgent action to create a safe environment, it said.
The report, the first of three to cover mental health services, looked at clinical governance arrangements in two acute admission wards, two day units, and eight community teams and also conducted interviews with 24 patients, both in hospital and in the community.
Personal safety, it said, was raised as an area of concern by both staff and patients, with violence described as an “everyday occurrence” at one unit and with some patients feeling too few staff were available in public areas to minimise the risk.
Urgent action is needed, said the report, to strengthen risk management strategies and ensure staff at all levels have training in risk assessment, but it said that the trust was developing services to meet the needs of the local community.
The report of the clinical governance review at Northern Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust is accessible at www.chi.nhs.uk and available from the Stationery Office (tel 0870 600 5522), price £6.