The trust which provides NHS mental health services in Huddersfield, has been advised to improve by the government health watchdog.
South West Yorkshire Foundation Trust (SWYFT) was rated ‘requires improvement’ in four out of five categories in its latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report.
The trust, which serves Kirklees, Calderdale and Wakefield, was criticised for understaffed services and long, poorly managed waiting lists.
SWYFT came under fire last year for its long waiting list for children’s and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), although the trust says this has now improved.
It was particularly criticised for its autism services where parents had to wait years for their children to be diagnosed.
The CQC also rapped SWYFT for its ‘slow’ system as well as its inconsistent management, risk assessment and physical health monitoring.
The trust, which also provides end-of-life services in West Yorkshire, received the amber ‘requires improvement’ rating for its management, safety, effectiveness and responsiveness.
The report said: “Staffing levels in some of the inpatient areas did not always meet the safer staffing levels set by the trust.
“This adversely impacted on activities, escorted leave and potentially patient and staff safety.
“We also found some patients were waiting a long time for a service and this was especially so in specialist community mental health services for children and young people and psychology therapy services.
“The waiting lists were also not being appropriately managed which could lead to escalation in patient risk not being recognised.
“We will be working with the trust to agree an action plan to assist them in improving the standards of care and treatment.”
SWYFT did, however, receive a ‘good’ rating for its caring attitude towards patients.
The report added: “We found good communication between staff and patients and staff treating patients with kindness, dignity, compassion and respect.
“This was supported by comments from patients who were positive about the care and treatment they received from services.”
Rob Webster, SWYFT chief executive, said: “I am pleased to see that the CQC recognised good practice and pockets of excellence within the trust. This highlights the hard work and dedication of our caring staff, who put service users first and in the centre of everything we do.
“There were very few surprises in the reports; areas for improvement reflect the areas we are already working on and have action plans in place for.
“One of our core values as an organisation is to improve and be outstanding.
“We welcome the inspection and the independent view of our services as an opportunity to continue improving our services for local people.”
