Cygnet Hospital Colchester upgraded to ‘Good’ in latest CQC report

The team at Cygnet Hospital Colchester

Well done to the team at Cygnet Hospital Colchester who have seen the hospital’s rating upgraded to ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Cygnet Hospital Colchester is a 54-bed service providing a range of acute, intensive support and rehabilitation services for men with mental health needs, learning disabilities or autism spectrum disorders.

The latest inspection was a focused inspection in June 2021 looking at all key lines of enquiries across all wards at the hospital. Significant improvements were identified across all areas and as a result the hospital achieved a ‘Good’ rating in all five key lines of enquiry.

The full report, published on the CQC website, highlights many areas of positive practice, including:

  • The service was well led, leadership was good, and governance processes helped the service to keep people safe, protect their human rights and provide good care, support and treatment.
  • Staff were keen to talk about the improvements they had made to the service and were passionate and enthusiastic in demonstrating this.
  • Staff treated service users with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and understood the individual needs of service users.
  • The ward staff worked well together as a multidisciplinary team and with those outside the ward who would have a role in providing aftercare.
  • Staff minimised the use of restrictive practices, managed medicines safely and followed good practice with respect to safeguarding.
  • The service managed beds well, so that a bed was always available to a person who would benefit from admission.

The report also notes the significantly improved process of monitoring and learning from restraint incidents. The use of CCTV audits of restraints and subsequent de-briefs with staff to highlight where improvements to practice could be made was highlighted as outstanding practice.

“The team have worked hard and tirelessly and are very pleased to have achieved such a result. We have and continue to work collaboratively with the CQC to ensure we are delivering good quality care to our service users. Our goal now is to maintain and improve the service from good to outstanding.”Ron Gutu, Operations Director

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