THURSDAY, 17 MARCH, 2022

Immediate release:

Patients give positive feedback on Carseview wards

Staff in three wards at Carseview Centre have been praised for the care given to patients following visits by the Mental Welfare Commission in November and December 2021. The Mental Welfare Commission visits hospitals and other care settings to check on the care and treatment being delivered.

Patients in Wards 1 and 2, which are 22-bed general adult admission wards, and in the 10-bed Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU) spoke highly of the staff and the care, treatment and support they were receiving.

They told inspectors that staff treated them with dignity and respect, were approachable and offered them opportunities to discuss concerns. Inspectors saw staff spending time talking to and interacting with patients.

Patients were also mainly positive about the ward environments, saying they feel safe there and giving good feedback about areas such as ward gyms and outside spaces. In Ward 1, electric bikes have been purchased and plans are in place for seated exercise sessions. The inspectors also noted an improvement to the IPCU environment since their previous visit in 2020, with ongoing refurbishment work and new furniture in place.

During previous visits to wards at Carseview, the Commission made recommendations to ensure more consistency in the approach to care planning. Since then NHS Tayside has produced a set of standards for person-centred planning and inspectors were pleased to find that care plans were clear, detailed and showed evidence of review and discharge planning. They also noted that care planning was goal and recovery focused, person-centred and that patients generally felt included in their care and treatment.

There is input into the wards from a range of different disciplines including psychiatry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and activity support workers. One gap that was noted by the Commission was the lack of availability of psychological therapies which may be of benefit to some patients. Plans are in place to support development in this area.

Another area for improvement was around access to social work with a recommendation made for a review of the referral pathway to allow staff to make and follow up requests more efficiently.

It was highlighted that there were some patients in the IPCU on the day of the visit who were not detained under the mental health act and were awaiting transfer to less restrictive wards. Concerns around informal patients being in IPCU were discussed with the clinical team and it was recognised this can happen occasionally due to bed pressures in general wards. This is reviewed daily and the service is working closely with colleagues across the three health and social care partnerships to ensure that patients are cared for in the most appropriate setting.

Overall the inspectors said they were impressed to see and hear how staff in each ward have continued to provide a quality service despite the challenges of COVID-19.

Executive Director of Nursing Claire Pearce said, “We welcome these positive reports which provide important feedback on our services and recognise the commitment of our staff to providing excellent care for people in Tayside. Our teams have been working tirelessly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and I’m particularly pleased that the patients themselves spoke so highly of staff in these wards.”

You can read the reports here:

Ward 1 https://www.mwcscot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-02/Carseview-Ward1_20211123a_0.pdf

Ward 2 https://www.mwcscot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-03/Carseview-Ward2-20211129-a.pdf

IPCU https://www.mwcscot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-03/Carseview-IPCU_20211220a.pdf

Contact:

Louise Wilson

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 740718