Mental Health Commission found Lois Bridges unsafe
Some of the care and treatment of seriously physically ill residents with anorexia nervosa admitted to the Lois Bridges treatment facility in Sutton, Dublin was inadequate and unsafe, according to a watchdog report.
The inspection was carried out in December by the Mental Health Commission but it found there had been little improvement in the provision of safe care since the annual inspection in March 2017.
The watchdog said that following an annual inspection in March 2017 and a focused inspection in August 2017, there have been ongoing concerns about the safety of residents, risk management, and staffing in the approved centre.
Staffing levels unsafe at ‘eating disorder’ clinic, inspection finds
Despite an immediate action notice, these concerns continued and a second focused inspection in December was carried out. It found that there were again serious concerns about staffing and risk management procedures, particularly in relation to seriously physically ill residents with anorexia nervosa. These concerns were again risk-rated as critical. The Inspector found that seriously ill residents continued to be admitted to Lois Bridges, which did not have sufficient medical support in place to safely treat and care for them.
“Staffing in Lois Bridges remained at unsafe levels. There was only one consultant psychiatrist who was also the clinical director. “There was no other medical input apart from the local GP. The consultant psychiatrist provided regular input two days a week and also worked in another health care facility. “Sixteen hours of consultant psychiatrist input on-site per week is not sufficient psychiatric input to meet the needs of up to seven in-patients, especially if some of those patients have severe and complex eating disorders associated with high clinical risk.” There was only one health care assistant and one nurse on duty for day and night. There was not always a registered psychiatric nurse on duty. Apart from one registered psychiatric nurse and the dietician, the medical, nursing, and health care assistants did not have any formal training in eating disorders, despite Lois Bridges functioning as an eating disorder unit. Following the inspection, the Commission attached three conditions to the registration of Lois Bridges, including the complete prohibition on the admission of seriously physically unwell residents.
“The Commission has met with the service to express its concerns and continues to closely monitoring the service’s improvement plans,” said.
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