DEVON health bosses have welcomed inspectors’ ‘good’ rating for the county’s mental health services.
Inspectors for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) recently published the findings of an assessment of Devon Partnership NHS Trust from last December and have rated the services as ‘good’ across the board.
The previous overall rating was ‘requires improvement’.
Devon Partnership NHS Trust is the county’s main provider of adult mental health services, commissioned by NHS NEW Devon CCG. It receives 64,000 referrals a year and has contact with about 900 people a day.
Lorna Collingwood-Burke, chief nursing officer for the CCG, said: ‘We are delighted with the inspectors’ findings and congratulate the whole team at Devon Partnership Trust on this achievement. It is recognition of the effort and commitment that staff at every level have put into improving and maintaining the quality of services.
‘It is particularly impressive that the secure service, based at Langdon in Dawlish, received a rating of ‘outstanding’ for its responsiveness.
‘Having great mental health services in Devon is one of the stated priorities in the Wider Devon Sustainability and Transformation Plan and we look forward to continuing to work with Devon Partnership Trust to ensure we have safe and sustainable services, from prevention and primary care through to specialist care and supported recovery.’
The CQC inspected five core services, including community mental health services for older people, wards for older people, acute wards for adults of working age, wards for people with learning disabilities or autism, crisis care and home-based treatment.
Inspectors found considerable improve-ments had been made since the last inspection in July 2015 and the trust has now been rated ‘good’ for providing safe and effective services.
It had already been rated ‘good’ for providing caring, well-led and responsive services.
Full reports are available on CQC’s website http://www. cqc.org.uk/provider/RW