Enter and view: acute mental health wards at St Charles Mental Health Unit: Overview

Healthwatch Westminster and Healthwatch Kensington and Chelsea conducted Enter and View visits to the four acute mental health wards at St Charles Hospital Mental Health Unit, in line with their sister organisation Healthwatch Brent, who were visiting the acute services at Park Royal Hospital in response to feedback from local advocacy providers. This visit aimed to learn more about patient experiences of care, and their knowledge of mental health advocacy and the complaints system. The visits also aimed to evaluate whether services are culturally appropriate and sensitive for the ethnically diverse patients on the ward. Additionally, they were keen to understand if the closure of the mental health inpatient ward at the Gordon hospital in Westminster had affected patients receiving visitors, and if the activities offered by the wards were consistent across both sites.

Key findings and recommendations were:

• The staff numbers are in crisis. Steps to support staff should be taken immediately.
• The quality of photocopied materially should be improved immediately.
• A review of the welcome packs should take place, with a particular reference to layout. It is recommended that patients are included in the review.
• More effort should be taken by staff to ensure that patients are aware of mental health advocates, the complaints system, and their care plans.
• Advertised timetables should be adhered to so there is a regular routine on the ward. Particular areas identified included unlocking the balcony areas, activities taking place when they were advertised and for the stated length of time, and the availability of breakfast changing day by day so that it could be missed.
• Training more staff members to be able to oversee the use of the gym would be helpful in allowing better access to the gym.
• The activities offer should be broadly the same across all four wards and action should be taken to ensure that one ward does not have a ‘better offer’ than another.
• All wards should review their noticeboards to ensure that the materials displayed are both up-to-date and appropriate to their environment. They should also be reviewed as to the ease of reading and understanding.
• The presence of the faith room should be made very clear to all patients, both in the welcome pack and advertised on the wards.
• Any broken furniture or other broken appliances on the wards, should be immediately removed from meeting rooms and replaced.
• The shared areas of the wards should be cleaned and any damage that exacerbates the collection of dirt should be fixed.