Hospital safety standards questioned

The report said that staff were motivated and committed

"Serious concerns" have been raised about the standards of care and safety at a psychiatric hospital after NHS inspectors discovered crumbling facilities and frightened staff.

The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) started an in-depth investigation into the Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust earlier this year.

The Trust provides mental health, sexual health, drug and alcohol and learning disability services from five main hospitals.

One of these hospitals in the Princess Marina mental hospital in Northampton.

In the report, published on Tuesday, the CHI said that although staff were committed and motivated, high workloads meant morale was low in some areas.

Patients were treated with dignity and respect, but this was compromised by the standard of some of the facilities, the CHI said.

Some staff also reported feeling unsafe.

Police have recently been called in to investigate the suspected drugging of nurses at the mental hospital.

Staff, patients and visitors at the hospital have been attacked by local youths.

There have also been suicides at the hospital.

The public sector union Unison claimed they had been highlighting the problems set out in the report to management for years, but nothing had been done.

Pressure on beds

The report said: "There is pressure on beds, and while there is no operational policy to manage this problem, this can make it difficult for staff to manage care safely.

"For example, CHI found service users with serious acute mental illness on general acute wards because beds were not available in psychiatric intensive care."

Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust is developing an action plan in response to our report

Peter Homa, CHI chief executive

Trust officials have been given recommendations to work more as a team and to ensure guidelines about the quality and safety of patient care are clearly defined.

Peter Homa, CHI's chief executive said: "Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust is developing an action plan in response to our report, and once implemented, the CHI believes that improvements will be made."