A Birmingham hospital has been ‘Good’ by the regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC), with inspectors praising the kind and compassionate care provided by staff.
Cygnet Wast Hills, on Wast Hills Lane, King Norton, is a Cygnet Health Care-run service which provides care for men with autism, learning difficulties and complex needs.
In the new CQC report, published following an inspection of the service in August, inspectors concluded that it is ‘Good’ across all domains – safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. They said staff treated patients with compassion and kindness and respected patients’ privacy and dignity.
The report read: “Staff saw people as their equal and created a warm and inclusive atmosphere. We observed staff to be warm and they cared for people in the way they or their family would want to be treated. Staff spoke passionately and with empathy about the people they worked with.
“People received kind and compassionate care. We observed staff speak to people with respect and in a way that the individual understood.
“Staff were patient and used appropriate styles of interaction with people. They were calm, focused, and attentive to people’s emotional and other support needs and sensory sensitivities. We observed staff spending time with people and listening to them. Staff responded appropriately if a person became upset to help relieve their distress.
“People felt valued by staff who showed genuine interest in their well-being and quality of life. People said that staff cared for them and were interested in what they liked doing. We observed that staff showed warmth and respect when interacting with people.”
The report also praised staff for enabling service users to access specialist health and social care support in the community. They supported people to attend dental, optician, and health screening appointments. The CQC said service users had the opportunity to try new experiences, develop new skills and gain independence. Each person had a support plan that identified target goals and aspirations and staff supported them to achieve greater independence including skills development. It also commended the service for the culture it had created on-site.
It added: “People received good quality care, support, and treatment because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes.
“Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs, and rights at the heart of everything they did. When staff assessed people as not having capacity to make decisions for themselves, they made decisions on people’s behalf in their best interest and considering their wishes, feelings, culture, and history.
“Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity.”
A Cygnet Health Care spokesperson said: “We are incredibly pleased with the CQC rating and how far we have come since our previous inspection last year.
“All of the staff at Wast Hills work exceptionally hard to provide the highest standard of care and this outcome reflects their level of commitment and dedication towards our service users.
“Every day we all strive to make a positive difference to the men we support and to have our efforts rewarded and recognised in this way makes us feel very proud. We want to thank staff for ensuring this service is the best it can be for our patients and for helping us to achieve this brilliant outcome.”
The report also commended the safe and clean ward environments and praised staff for their ability to assess and manage risk well. It said staff minimised the use of restrictive practices, managed medicines safely, followed good practice with respect to safeguarding and planned and managed discharge well.