Welsh Mental Health Services Praised For Care Standards
Two Cygnet Health Care services in North Wales received a positive inspection report by the regulator, Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) with inspectors praising staff for providing a high standard of care.
Cygnet Delfryn House and Cygnet Delfryn Lodge, on Argoed Hall Lane in Mold, Flintshire, are both run by Cygnet Health Care and offer a high dependency inpatient rehabilitation service for those who have severe and enduring mental illness. HIW inspectors completed an unannounced inspection during 4th – 6th July and the services received positive feedback from the regulator, with no immediate areas of non-compliance identified during the inspection.
In the new HIW report, inspectors concluded that the staff team was committed to providing a high standard of care to patients.
Praising the quality of patient care, the report highlighted the appointment of patient representatives as a particularly positive initiative. It said: “This helped promote patient engagement and ensure the voice of patients is heard.
“Staff interacted and engaged with patients appropriately and with dignity and respect. Patients had their own programme of care that reflected their individual needs and had access to a mental health advocate who provided information and support with any issues they may have regarding their care.”
In a joint statement, John Sweetman, Clinical Manager at Delfryn Lodge and Jade Brown, Clinical Manager at Delfryn House, said: “All of us at the Delfryn sites are delighted with the outcome of the inspection from HiW. Putting our service users first is at the heart of what we do at Cygnet Health Care and we are so pleased that the high standards of our patient care was highlighted in the report.
“We would like to thank all of the staff here for their hard work, commitment and dedication towards offering the very best service for those we support. It is so appreciated and we see day-in and day-out the difference we are making to so many.
“We continuously strive to improve and we look forward to implementing the recommendations from HiW to ensure we continue deliver outstanding outcomes for those in our care.”
The inspectors spoke with patients and their relatives and found that they had the opportunity to engage and provide feedback to staff on the provision of care at the facility in a number of ways. Additionally, staff responses to a HiW questionnaire were positive across all areas, with all respondents recommending the service as a place to work and agreeing that they would be happy with the standard of care provided for their friends or family.
The report added: “Staff appeared committed to providing safe and effective care. Patient care plans were being maintained to a good standard.
“Staff took the time to speak with patients to understand their needs or any concerns the patients raised. We attended a handover meeting during the inspection and saw that staff demonstrated a good level of understanding of the patients they were caring for and that discussions focused on what was best for the individual patient.”
Dr Tony Romero, CEO of Cygnet Health Care, said he was extremely proud of his staff. He said: “I would like to personally thank all our staff for the first class service they provide to the men and women who need our support
“The teams at Delfryn House and Delfryn Lodge work diligently to ensure our service users fulfil their potential and receiving good inspection reports like this is testament to the incredible effort staff put in each and every day to provide the highest standard of care.”
The report also highlighted that the services had processes in place to manage and review risks to help maintain the health and safety of patients, staff and visitors at the hospital. It also praised the high quality of management and leadership at the service, the cleanliness of the environment, patient record and medicine management and said the nutritional needs of patients were met.