Health watchdog says ‘serious concerns’ remain over running of private mental health hospital in Wrexham

A health watchdog has said that “serious concerns” remain over the running of a private mental health hospital in Wrexham.

Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) has issued a second damning report regarding Ty Grosvenor, which provides care for up to 34 men and women with mental health conditions.

Inspectors paid a surprise visit to the independent hospital in July last year, which resulted in it being flagged as a service of concern after officials found safety risks were not being monitored properly.

A follow up inspection was carried out in October to check whether improvements were being made, with restrictions in place on new admissions.

However, inspectors said there were major issues still to be addressed after their findings were recently made public.

Elysium Healthcare Ltd, which runs the facility, said it accepted their recommendations and had taken on new senior staff to raise standards.

In their report, HIW officials said: “Overall we remain not assured that the registered provider had adequate systems and processes in place to ensure patients were receiving effective and safe care.

“Following up on actions from our previous visit, we noted Brenig ward had made some improvements in relation to patient care plans and risk assessments.

“However, the learning had not filtered to Alwen ward, where we identified similar failings as those we found in July.

“Issues regarding care plans found in July 2020 were again identified on this inspection.

“Care plans for some patients with identified risks did not have sufficient detail in them to ensure these were being managed appropriately.

“Some of the care plan audits reviewed were of a poor quality because they lacked detail.”

Since their last visit, the inspectors said staffing numbers had improved at the hospital on Grosvenor Road, which opened in 2018.

But they raised outstanding concerns about a lack of staff meetings and supervision, as well as lapsed staff appraisals.

They added: “Following the visit HIW held a service of concern review meeting where it decided, due to the findings of the follow up visit, that a non-compliance notice should be issued and that Ty Grosvenor would remain a service of concern.

“In addition, due to the serious concerns identified within this report, a decision was made to issue a notice of decision to impose a condition preventing new admissions at Ty Grosvenor until HIW are satisfied that our concerns have been actioned.”

They said they had received assurances since the inspection that appropriate action was being taken but would be monitoring the service closely.

A spokesman for Elysium Healthcare said: “The safety and wellbeing of our patients remains our highest priority and we always welcome the scrutiny that comes from our partners at the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales.

“We accept the findings of this report and have already implemented a quality improvement action plan.

“The work on this has been led by a new senior quality assurance team member. We have also appointed a new hospital director to lead the service going forward.

“We will continue to improve the quality of the service on an ongoing basis and ensure it is fully embedded across all of the wards.”

By Liam Randall – BBC Local Democracy Reporter