Watchdog takes action against autism and ADHD service for failing to provide safe care despite being placed in special measures

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has taken ‘urgent’ action against an autism service for failing to provide safe care despite being placed in special measures. Heywood-based LANCuk has been barred from accepting any new or repeat patients to its medicine prescribing service without written agreement from the CQC.

The centre, which provides assessment and treatment for adults and children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was rated as ‘inadequate’ following a visit by CQC inspectors last December. Follow-up inspections in March and April found that ‘insufficient improvements had been made’, resulting in the CQC taking enforcement action to impose conditions on the service.
 

Read more: Mental health service warned it could face closure as it’s placed in special measures for a second timePublished: 07 December 2021

The provider, which operates from Independence House on Adelaide Street, remains in special measures, a new report says. LANCuk says it has now employed an interim manager ‘who is fully working with the CQC and Clinical Commissioning Group to implement the recommended actions’.

A key area of concern for inspectors was the service’s failure to safely prescribe, administer and store medicines, as well as the lack of effective record keeping. Neither did staff regularly review the effects of medicines on each patient’s mental and physical health.

Brian Cranna, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said officials were disappointed to see LANCuk had failed to take’ the necessary action’ to remedy the concerns raised during the last inspection’.

“We remained concerned that there was no oversight of the prescription management process to prevent the possible misuse of medications,” he said. “Thorough checks should be carried out before increasing the dose of medicines which wasn’t happening.

“The service had three different systems where care records were stored which made it difficult for staff to keep track. In addition, there was a two-month backlog of letters for GPs and patients which could delay people’s care and treatment and put them at risk.”

Mr Cranna added that patients had found getting through to the service ‘challenging’ and that sometimes messages weren’t being passed on or calls returned. 

“They also said that seeing different clinicians on each visit wasn’t ideal as they felt like they were explaining their story repeatedly,” he continued. “Patients would benefit from knowing the time scales and what to expect in between appointments.”

He also noted that multidisciplinary meetings had not taken place and key information was not always shared with clinicians – meaning staff weren’t given the opportunity to discuss updates or learn from incidents. The overall rating of the service remains inadequate, as do the assessment categories of ‘safe’ and ‘well led’.

However, the ‘good ratings for effective, caring and responsive are also unchanged. And the CQC says it is pleased that the service has introduced an incidents and complaints database which has clear records to support any decision making and learning.

“Leaders now understand where improvements must be made, and we’ll continue to monitor the service closely to ensure people are safe,” said Mr Cranna. “If we’re not assured people are receiving safe care, we will not hesitate to take further action.”

Overall there were four breaches of care regulations and LANCuk was ordered to send CQC a report detailing the action it intended to take to address this.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter