Brain rehab critised over staffing

BBC news Glasgow & West Scotland

Janruary 15,2015

 

Health inspectors have criticised a rehabilitation centre for people with brain injuries for its high turnover of nursing staff.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) said nurses at the Murdostoun Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre lacked appropriate experience.

Inspectors also said there was a high use of agency staff at the centre near Wishaw in North Lanarkshire.

It has now been given until the end of next month to address the problem.

Murdostoun Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre is registered as an independent hospital and provides specialist assessment and rehabilitation services to people with varying degrees of brain injury.

 

The centre, which can care for a maximum of 21 people, is operated by the Huntercombe Group, part of the Four Seasons Health Care Group.

'No formal qualifications'

The HIS report revealed people in the centre complained that they were "bored at times" as they felt there was "little to do in the evenings and sometimes during the day as well".

While this had been raised with centre bosses, HIS inspectors "could see little action to make sure clients had staff support for meaningful activities outside of set 'therapy sessions'".

The HIS report said: "The nursing and care teams had gone through a lot of change recently.

"Most of the current nurses did not have formal qualifications or experience in rehabilitation."

The inspectors added: "Low staff numbers, particularly at night, meant that sometimes 50% of staff on night duty were from an agency."

According to the report. the high turnover "is not ideal in any care setting, but particularly in a rehabilitation setting where staff consistency is of key importance".

'Centre must improve'

Instead of being supported throughout the recommended 24-hour period, rehabilitation treatment was limited to between 09:30 and 17:00, the inspection said.

HIS chief inspector Susan Brimelow said: "This inspection has identified a number of important areas where Murdostoun Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre must improve."

But she added: "We noted areas where the service was performing well: medication management systems were well organised and storage areas are clean and tidy; and staff recruitment records and staff selection processes were well kept."

A spokeswoman for the Huntercombe Group, which operates the centre, said: "No aspect of the service was graded unsatisfactory, but we accept the inspectors findings that there were some aspects that could be better and we have been implementing a plan agreed with Healthcare Improvement Scotland."