Media Release: Inspection report Royal Edinburgh Hospital, NHS Lothian

“During our inspection we saw good multidisciplinary team working to provide person-centred care and treatment and kind and respectful interactions between staff and patients.

“Staff were open and transparent about the current challenges they face in relation to the use of non-standard care areas throughout the hospital. During our inspection we raised several concerns with senior managers relating to the care of patients within non-standard care areas.

“We also raised concerns with senior managers around risk assessments, a lack of approved process to support staff decision making and lack of privacy for patients in non-standard care areas. Issues around unassessed ligature points, environmental challenges and the ability of staff to be able to carry out continuous observations were also highlighted.

“We also raised concerns relating to the fire risk assessments and the lack of appropriate fire doors.

“Several requirements have been given in relation to a lack of effective systems in place to support the delivery of safe care within non-standard care areas. We will return to carry out a follow-up inspection to assess and monitor improvement in response to these concerns.

“Other areas identified for improvement include staff training in areas such as life support and fire safety as well as improving communication with patients and families.”

“Our previous mental health inspection programme was focused on infection prevention and control. It was agreed with Scottish Government to widen the inspection focus from infection prevention and control to a broader assurance function, creating a new and revised ‘safe delivery of care’ assurance model in NHS adult mental health units.

“We believe it is important to provide public assurance that adult mental health units in Scotland are safe for patients and staff, provide quality person-centred care, with clear leadership and a focus on improvement.”