Quality Accounts
for Alpha Hospitals
2010 to 2011
Alpha Hospitals Quality Accounts
2010 to 2011
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1. Quality Narrative
Statement from the Chief Executive
I am delighted to welcome you to our second dedicated Quality Account which describes the
quality and standard of the care and services we provide. The aim of this document is to
illustrate how important quality is to our organisation and how it underpins all of our work. It
outlines our quality achievements during 2010/11 and sets our out objectives to further enhance
the quality of our services for the benefit of service users during 2011/12. In compiling this
report we have liaised closely with our Board, our clinicians, service users and carers and NHS
Commissioners and other key stakeholders.
Alpha Hospitals was established in 2002 to meet the growing need for small specialist units
providing care for patients with enduring mental illness. It is the group’s aspiration to provide
hospitals where staff can feel pride in their work and patients can receive a holistic approach to
treatment providing the best care possible. It is our objective to provide a culture and an
environment where staff feel they belong, are happy in their jobs and patients feel their
contribution is valued in the development of services. We believe that to provide a professional
service, it is paramount to preserve the integrity and commitment of the team. We must value
each other and put the patients first in everything we do.
Our Mission is to deliver the highest standard of patient care which is clinically effective in a
manner which respects people’s dignity, privacy and individuality in a safe, homely setting.
The primary aim of Alpha Hospitals is to provide specialist psychiatric services that meet the
needs of the local community. The company works toward partnership arrangements with the
NHS through the development of good working relationships, an informed understanding of the
local needs and a unique integrated approach to the commissioning of services.
Alpha Hospitals is committed to the continued development of an organisational culture which
allows the accommodation of an underlying approach of continuous quality improvement. Our
comprehensive quality framework makes explicit to all care staff the organisation’s expectations
and vision regarding clinical standards and lines of accountability. Lead clinicians and senior
managers are encouraged to show a clear commitment to care quality improvement through the
inclusion of clinical governance as a key strategic and operational priority within the hospital
structure and operations. All staff members are involved in measurement of performance and its
analysis thereby leading to continuous performance improvement. This means that service-wide
Alpha Hospitals Quality Accounts
2010 to 2011
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as well as team and individual specific quality improvement initiatives are promoted, supporting
a culture of learning from experience and innovation in care delivery.
We strive for the highest quality and to ensure this we make continuous improvements within
an environment of openness, transparency, innovation, safety and reliability. To facilitate this,
our services are delivered based on the outcomes of robust internal and external audit
processes. We regard highly the views of the people who use our services and we constantly
monitor and review practice and actively encourage external influence through service user /
carer groups and peer review.
We would like to thank our staff, service users and carers, NHS Commissioners and other key
stakeholders for their continued support over the past year in helping us strive for excellence.
We look forward to working with them in partnership during the forthcoming year to further
improve the quality and effectiveness of our services which we recognise as essential in the
challenging climate faced by the NHS.
We would welcome your feedback on the Quality Account and if you would like to let us know
your views please contact the Senior Clinical Nurse Director on 0161-762-7247.
As the Chief Executive of Alpha Hospitals I can confirm that, to the best of my knowledge, the
information contained in this document is accurate.
This Quality Account was approved by the Board on 4 June 2011.
Patricia Hodgkinson
Chief Executive Officer
Alpha Hospitals Quality Accounts
2010 to 2011
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2. Quality Performance
Priorities for Quality Improvement 2010/11
Following consultation with key stakeholders, Alpha Hospitals’ top four priorities for quality
improvement in 2010/11 are:
1
User and Carer Involvement
2
Care Programme Approach (CPA)
3
Recovery planning
4
Physical wellbeing
5
Improving Outcomes
These priorities reflect improvement goals identified through Alpha Hospitals own clinical
governance arrangements and they also complement the priorities identified by NHS Commissioners
via Commissioning for Quality and Innovation measures included in the 2011/2012 NHS standard
mental health contract. They are also in keeping with the national and regional secure services
Quality, Innovation, Productivity, Prevention (QIPP) programme, the Government strategy ‘No
Health without Mental Health’ and other key national priorities for mental health services
specifically in relation to patient safety, personalisation, measurable outcomes, choice, service
innovation and tackling stigma and discrimination.
These priorities have been identified and this report developed with and for key stakeholders
including lead clinicians and managers within our own organisation who work within each of our
specialist service streams as follows:
Medium Secure Male Mental Illness
Low Secure Male Mental Illness/Personality Disorder
Medium Secure Personality Disorder
Medium Secure Male Deaf Mental Disorder
Low Secure Male Deaf Mental Disorder
Low Secure Female Personality Disorder
Low Secure Female Personality Disorder/Mental Illness
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2010 to 2011
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Medium Secure Female Personality Disorder
Medium Secure Female Personality Disorder/Mental Illness
Low Secure Male Mental Disorder
Locked Rehabilitation for Females
Low Secure – PICU Service for Female Adolescents
Low Secure – PICU Service for Male Adolescents
Service Users and carers were involved in the consultation together with a range of interested
parties including our own staff and NHS Commissioners.
Each of the priorities for improvement is described in more detail below.
Priority 1 – Service user and carer involvement
Our goal is to provide a service user strategy and carer strategy which provides a range of
opportunities for service users and carers to have a voice in service provision, service development
and decision making, the impact of which can be evaluated regularly
The goal is supported by our Involvement, Choice and Responsibility Strategy the purpose of which is
to provide a strategic framework for a thorough and pragmatic approach to service user and carer
involvement at Alpha Hospitals which makes a difference to the lives of service users and carers.
The strategy is aimed at further development of strong involvement infrastructures and embedding
service user and carer involvement into governance arrangements allowing patients and carers in
partnership with staff to take an increasing role in meeting outcomes and responsibility in relation to
choice and lifestyle.
The Involvement, Choice and Responsibility Strategy is underpinned by the following Commissioning
for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) standards:
Essen Scale
Involvement, Choice and Responsibility
Recovery Planning
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2010 to 2011
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As a medium and low secure provider we will continue to measure our services by the use of the
Essen Climate Evaluation Scale. The output from the Essen surveys carried out in 2010/2011 has
been used to develop service specific action plans which will be implemented during 2011/12 to
assist in achieving target improvements in service user experience and clinical outcomes.
The involvement strategy implementation plan has been evaluated and re-formulated for 2011/12
to ensure we continue to strive towards and achieve involvement of service users in every aspect of
their care and treatment, service delivery and service development, thus promoting and achieving
personalisation. The new plan for this year includes delivery of the Shared Pathway and Patient
Portfolio.
Priority 2 – CPA
Our CPA goal is to put people who use services at the heart of what we do. This will be achieved
through empowering patients and carers to be equal partners with professionals in the CPA
process through the implementation of CPA standards which have been defined by service users.
This goal is supported by the following CQUIN standards:
HoNOS/HCR-20 and other service specific clinical outcome measures
Meaningful activity
Involvement, Choice and Responsibility
Recovery Planning
Clear specifications for each patient group will be further developed to include specific assessments
using the right tools for the best mental health practice in each service. We will achieve this in
conjunction with the development of the shared pathway and patient portfolio. In adult services we
will use HoNOS-secure, HCR-20, SAPROF, START, STORI, MOHOST and CAN-FOR and in Adolescent
services we will use HONOSCA. Patients will be provided with information to assist their
understanding of the assessment tools which are used. Patients will be encouraged to write their
own reports for their CPA meetings with support from staff.
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2010 to 2011
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We will build on the structured day for patients striking a balance between therapy and recreation
and achieve a minimum of 25 hours meaningful activity to promote recovery and improve clinical
outcomes. We will focus on preparation for patients to achieve some wider outcomes when they
are discharged from secure care, for example gaining employment.
We will implement a Recovery Action Plan based on the Sainsbury Centre framework for
organisational change to demonstrate Alpha Hospitals engagement in delivering recovery orientated
services and commitment to build on existing good areas of practice. We will promote patients and
care staff to work in partnership towards a shared understanding of recovery. All patients will be
able to make an informed choice with support regarding the most appropriate recovery tool for
example Recovery Star, Wellness Recovery Action Plans.
Feedback from patients and carers will be routinely used to measure performance and outcomes of
our secure care services.
Priority 3 – Recovery Planning
Our goal is to further develop our recovery culture through real partnership working between the
service user and care staff so they can work to a shared understanding of recovery resulting in an
improved experience of care in secure services.
This goal is supported by the following CQUIN standards:
Recovery Planning
Involvement, Choice and Responsibility
Meaningful activity
This is aimed at ensuring our services are recovery orientated and to ensure patients feel valued,
respected and listened to. We will use the shared pathway and recovery framework as a new way of
planning and following the journey made by people in our secure services, helping them towards
achieving the lifestyle to which they aspire by providing a consistent approach based on a recovery
model.
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2010 to 2011
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All patients will be supported to complete a recovery plan with support from care staff and with the
involvement of carers. Recovery workshops and recovery groups will be organised for each service
regularly and key areas for development will be identified. A joint patient/staff report will be
produced and progress monitored and evaluated as part of a joint work plan.
We will continue to provide service user defined activity plans which promote a balanced and
structured day linking with individual recovery plans and the shared pathway. We will assess activity
plans using the agreed national definition of Meaningful Activity and record and evaluation on the
agreed benchmarking tool.
Priority 4 – Physical Wellbeing
Our goal is ensure more people with mental health problems have good physical health. We will
achieve this through our commitment to establish parity between the quality of physical health
services which can be accessed by the general public and the physical health services we provide.
This includes Health Promotion and establishing healthy lifestyles and choices which can be
continues in the community.
Our dedicated Nurse Practitioner will continue to lead on a physical health and health promotion
strategy jointly with medical staff and senior nurses. The physical healthcare and health promotion
group will continue to meet on a regular basis to review the physical healthcare and health
promotion needs of our patients including relevant aspects of the General Medical Services Quality
and Outcomes Framework.
The physical health care group’s objectives for 2011-2012 include the following:
Ward based healthy eating groups

Training for all care staff regarding health promotion and how to help patients to
make healthy choices regarding their lifestyle

Introduce an in practice audit tool for physical health monitoring with training in its
use for all qualified nurses

Increasing physical exercise and weight management
Progress will be monitored through audit and patient feedback which will be reported to the central
clinical governance committee.
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2010 to 2011
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5. Improving outcomes
Our goal is to improve the measurement and reporting of outcomes achieved by the patients who
use our secure services. This will work towards a focus on risk reduction and reducing the length
of stay for patients in higher levels of security.
This goal is supported by the following CQUIN standards:
Meaningful activity
Involvement, Choice and Responsibility
Recovery Planning
HoNOS/HCR-20
Length of Stay
ESSEN
Service specific assessment algorithms are in place for use during 2011/12 which set out a structured
approach to the assessment of patients with a focus on a number of areas which are fundamental to
a patient’s journey in secure care. These include, for example, risk and safety to others, mental
health, relationships and recovery. We will produce guidance and quality standards across services
to further define, develop and standardise treatment as we learn more through national bodies
including NICE and NHS Commissioning boards.
We will demonstrate commitment to the national and regional QIPP schemes through engagement
in the development of the Shared Pathway and Patient Portfolio work streams. This will be achieved
in partnership with our patients and carers and through sharing best practice across secure services.
We will gain a better understanding of current length of stays for the patients in our services and
develop strategies to reduce them. Progress will be monitored, measured and reported via CQUIN
monitoring, CPA and related audits and patient and carer feedback.
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2010 to 2011
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Statement Relating to Quality of NHS Services Provided
Information required under the National Health Service (Quality Accounts) Regulations 2010
During the year ended 31 March 2011 Alpha Hospitals provided twelve types of services on behalf of
the NHS comprising gender specific medium and low secure and locked rehabilitation mental health
services.
We have reviewed all the data available to us on the quality of care in all twelve of these NHS
services.
The income generated by the NHS services reviewed in the year ended 31 March 2011 represents
100 per cent of the total income generated from the provision of NHS services by Alpha Hospitals for
the year ended 31 March 2011.
Participation in Clinical Audits and Confidential Enquiries
During the year ended 31 March 2011 six national clinical audits covered NHS services that Alpha
Hospitals provides. Alpha Hospitals did not participate in the National Clinical Audit programme
during 2011/12. However, we undertake a programme of local audit of clinical performance which is
reported to the Clinical Governance Committee on each hospital site.
We have a dedicated clinical audit department with dedicated staff who coordinate the clinical audit
programme for each hospital. The clinical audit programme is designed to meet the audit
requirements of government initiatives and demonstrates the achievement of group objectives,
standardised approaches to care and treatment, outcome measures, and self- regulation of patient
centred care and clinical practice.
A clinical audit committee is established and includes members of the multidisciplinary team who
are involved in carrying out audits within their own clinical speciality. We will introduce wherever
possible in practice audits which can be carried out by Qualified Nurses whilst engaged in clinical
practice for example, use of seclusion, physical health monitoring, the management of violence and
aggression, rapid tranquilisation.
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2010 to 2011
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The national confidential enquiries that Alpha Hospitals was eligible to participate in during year
ended 31 March 2011 are as follows:
National Confidential Enquiry into Suicide
We report to The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental
Illness (the inquiry) to identify individuals on the data sheets for whom we hold medical records to
ensure all cases of patient suicide and homicide are included in the research undertaken by this
group.
We are involved in the following quality improvement programmes which were underway year
ended March 2011; The Quality Network for In-Patient Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
(QNIC), Better Services for People who Self-Harm, Quality Network for Forensic Mental Health
Services (QNFMHS). We will continue our involvement during the coming year and participate in
the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POMH-UK).
The report of the National Clinical Audit of Schizophrenia which will be published in August 2011 will
be reviewed by Alpha Hospitals and an action plan to improve the quality of healthcare provided will
be issued to clinical teams within the organisation.
The reports of 39 local clinical audits were reviewed by Alpha Hospitals in the year ended 31 March
2011 and we identified the following key actions to improve the quality of healthcare provided:

Introduction of precise guidance for new nurses and training regarding personalisation
and care planning

Consent to treatment forms re-designed to incorporate all relevant guidance to
maximise compliance with Code of Practice

Completion of MDT risk assessments in conjunction with the patient to enhance their
involvement in their own risk assessment and risk management

Section 17 leave of absence form re-designed to improve recording of specific leave
care plans and restrictions

Management of Actual and Potential Aggression monitoring forms re-designed to
meet the BILD code of practice

Introduction of a clinical supervision passport to ensure staff are able to record all
supervision they have accessed
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2010 to 2011
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
Educational processes and procedural changes made to ensure patients obtain the
best from their CPA meetings

Introduction of in practice audits for seclusion and physical health to ensure standards
are always met by the clinical staff involved in actual clinical practice at the time

Awareness campaign for Relational Security to enhance practice and continue to build
on the See Think Act guidance to ensure it is fully integrated into practice.
Participation in Research
The number of patients receiving NHS services provided or sub-contracted by Alpha Hospitals in the
year ended 31 March 2011 that were recruited during that period to participate in research
approved by a research ethic committee was 1.
A core group of professionals with an interest in research and development attends regular Research
Governance meetings and reports to Central Clinical Governance in relation to developments in
social, psychological practice, research and clinical guidelines.
We are committed to improving the quality of care we offer and in contributing to wider healthcare
quality improvement which is demonstrated through our involvement in clinical networks and
research programmes which include:
Development of the shared pathway and patient portfolio

Research opportunities regarding the use of Essen Climate Evaluation Scale

Research opportunities regarding clinical outcome measures in forensic mental
health settings

Accessibility of recovery tools for Deaf patients
Goals agreed with Commissioners
A proportion of Alpha Hospitals income in the year ended 31 March 2011 was conditional on
achieving quality improvement and innovation goals agreed between Alpha Hospitals and any
person or body they entered into a contract, agreement or arrangement with for the provision of
NHS services, through the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation payment framework.
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2010 to 2011
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Further details of the agreed goals for the year ended 31 March 2011 and for the following 12 month
period are available on request from the Senior Clinical Nurse Director, based at Alpha Hospital Bury,
Bolton Road, Bury, Lancashire, BL8 2BS.
Regulatory Reports
Alpha Hospitals is required to register with the Care Quality Commission and is currently registered
for:

Treatment of disease, disorder or injury

Assessment or medical treatment of persons detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Diagnostic and Screening Procedures

Nursing Care
Alpha Hospitals registration is not subject to any outstanding conditions of registration.
The Care Quality Commission has not taken enforcement action against Alpha Hospitals during the
year ended 31 March 2011.
Alpha Hospitals has not participated in any special reviews or investigations by the Care Quality
Commission during the reporting period.
Alpha Hospitals is subject to periodic reviews by the Care Quality Commission and the last review for
which a report is available was in December 2010 at Alpha Hospital Woking. The CQC’s assessment
of Alpha Hospital Woking following that it was meeting all the essential standards of quality and
safety reviewed but to maintain this CQC suggested some improvements be made to safeguarding
reporting and records. An improvement plan was submitted by the hospital in January 2011
addressing the requirement.
Data Quality
As an independent sector provider Alpha Hospitals did not submit records during the year ended 31
March 2011 to the Secondary Uses Service for inclusion in the Hospital Episode Statistics which are
included in the latest published data.
Records Management assessed using the Information Governance Toolkit was level 2.
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2010 to 2011
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We have a comprehensive and systematic approach to the management of data quality held in
patient records which is overseen by our Information Governance Committee. Our Information
Management Strategy was reviewed and approved by the Board providing assurance that the
organisation has commitment and support to on-going improvement of data quality at the highest
level. Alpha Hospitals’ score for the year ended 31 March 2011 for Information Quality and Records
Management was 71%.
Alpha Hospitals was not subject to the Payment by Results clinical coding audit during the year
ended 31 March 2010 by the Audit Commission.
We recognise that good quality information underpins the effective delivery of patient care and is
essential if improvements in quality of care and value for money are to be made. We ensure that our
Information Governance Strategy guides and informs our record-keeping to support our delivery of
care and treatment and that the accuracy, completeness and validity of those records are monitored
on an on-going basis by audit to continually improve data quality.
Review of Quality Performance 2010/11
The following summary outlines our achievements during 2010/11:
Priority 1 –Involvement

Friends and family forums held throughout the year

ESSEN Climate Evaluation Scales completed

Carried out audits on service user led initiatives on the Whole Dining Experience and CPA

All patients given access to wellness recovery action plans

Service user involvement strategy action plan implemented
Priority 2 – CPA

HONOS Secure, HONOSCA and HCR20 utilised

25 hours structured week evaluated leading to further innovation in delivery of meaningful
activity
Priority 3 – Recovery Planning

All patients offered the opportunity of completing a recovery plan

Staff training delivered on the use of approved recovery tools
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2010 to 2011
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Priority 4 – Physical Wellbeing

Review of physical healthcare procedure with GP and Practice Nurse

Provision of staff training in advanced first aid

Development of electronic database for physical healthcare issues to track progress

Priority 2 - CPA
3. Quality Information
Review of Quality Performance
A number of metrics have been chosen to summarise our performance against key quality indicators
of effectiveness, safety and patient experience. These were chosen in consultation with our staff,
clinicians, patients and carers, NHS Commissioners and other key stakeholders.
Safety Indicators
Ensuring patient safety is of paramount importance to us in the delivery of our services. We have
robust systems in place to ensure we are aware of and adhere to new service users safety
pronouncement and guidance. All safety notices are processed in line with national guidance and
feedback is gained from the clinical areas as directed. A patient safety report is discussed at Clinical
Governance each month and actions taken cascaded via the meeting minutes.
There have been no breaches of Nationally Specified Events during year ended 31 March 2011. We
report serious incidents which have taken place on a quarterly basis and describe the actions we
have taken. This information is shared across the group and with the NHS. This demonstrates our
commitment to learning from experience and improving practice. We review all incidents and
accidents on an individual basis and service basis in the following forums: MDT partnership forums,
Health and Safety meetings, Clinical Governance. We use the information available to measure
reduction of risk in individual patients, safety on the wards. We have identified trends through
analysis of data and produce action plans to improve practice. For example, a reduction in the
incidences of self – harm in the female low and medium secure wards related to partnership working
with patients to provide training for staff on self-harm to increase awareness and learning new ways
to support patients to manage their self-harm. We submitted a paper in this regard to the shared
learning database in connection with NICE Best Practice guidance on self-harm (CG16).
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2010 to 2011
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Indicator
Target
Result
Report serious and untoward
At least 95% reports
Met
At least 90% compliance
Met
At least 90% compliance
Met
At least 90%
Achieved 96%
100% compliance
Met
incidents to NHS Secure
Commissioners within one
working day
Achieve compliance with
requirements set out in the
Best Practice Guidance:
specification for adult medium
secure services and National
Minimum Standards for
General Adult Services in Low
Secure Psychiatric Intensive
Care Units (PICU) or for
Adolescents and Low Secure
Environments including draft
low secure guidance
Compliance with infection
prevention and control
guidance
Compliance with Standards for
Medium Secure Forensic
Services - QNFMHS
Compliance with NPSA safety
alerts.
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2010 to 2011
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Effectiveness Indicators
An effective service can be defined as one that puts people who use services at the heart of what we
do using ‘No decision about me without me’ as the governing principle. This section describes some
of the indicators we have in place to measure effectiveness of our services in providing the right
service, to the right person at the right time.
Indicator
Target
Result
All patients will have the
All services
Met
All patients
Met
Robust and comparable data on All patients
Met
opportunity to complete a
recovery plan using an
approved recovery tool
Physical health checks for all
patients on admission and
annually including adhering to
best practice for chronic
disease management
ethnicity of service users
collated and reported
Implementation of service user
All patients
Met
defined CPA standards
Patient Experience Indicators
We are committed to seeking patient and carer feedback and input to service delivery to support
continual improvement in the patient experience ensuring care is personalised to reflect individual
needs, access to information and support to exercise choice, receive care and treatment in
accordance with clinical guidance and which can be measured.
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2010 to 2011
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Indicator
Target
Result
Ensure all patients on CPA have
100%
Met
All services
Met
All services
Met
All services
Met
All services
Met
All services
Met
All services
Met
All services
Met
a named care co-ordinator to
support the patients (eventual)
discharge
Undertake an annual patient
satisfaction survey and ensure
actions are taken following the
feedback to further enhance
the patient experience
Undertake regular surveys of
the ward atmosphere taking
into account how safe patients
feel, how engaged in treatment
they feel and the level of
support they have from care
staff and other patients they
live with
All patients have a CPA within 3
months of admission
All patients have an initial care
plan within 24 hours of
admission
All patients have a detailed care
plan within 3 months of
admission
All patients are offered copy of
their care plan
Complaints are responded to
within 2 days and are resolved
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within 25 days or an agreed
extended period
Other Achievements
In the year ended March 31st 2011 we were successful in meeting our strategic aims and gained the
following achievements:
We were successful in terms of NHS contract compliance and achieved quality and innovation targets
and had our work on recovery and service user involvement recognised nationally by the NHS.
We were inspected in December by the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quality Network – we
performed well achieving a score of 94%, some 4% ahead of previous year.
We were inspected for a total of 10 full days by the Mental Health Act arm of Care Quality
Commission and we maintained our high standards. The CQC report noted that compliance with the
Mental Health Act as an area of consistently good practice together with care planning, risk
management, excellent staff/patient interaction, therapy provision, our environment and patient
information provision.
We continue to lead the way in our MAPA practice and surpassed expectations at our recent annual
inspection in March and have been invited to present at a conference on how to be an excellent
Approved Training Centre (ATC).
We expanded our site with the opening on schedule of our new state of the art 44 bedded building,
The Dunes in Bury successfully re-locating our female hearing and male Deaf low secure services.
Expansion of our Sheffield site also began with works due to be completed later this year.
We embarked on a major refurbishment programme of our existing site in Bury which is now nearing
completion.
We continue to lead the way in Deaf services and our communication department who for example
achieved second prize for their presentation at the European Society for Mental Health and Deafness.
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Professor John Livesley joined us as advisor to our PD services and with his help we hosted a
successful workshop for staff and NHS contacts in March.
A large number of our patients were supported in submitting artwork to the Koestler Awards and 14
applicants were presented with awards by the CEO of the Koestler Trust.
All of our female service wards achieved Star Wards awards presented by Marion Janner OBE.
Our physical healthcare arrangements for our patients with the assistance of our Nurse Practitioner
and medical and nursing teams are very effective and we hosted a physical health conference which
was attended by over 90 external delegates.
Our IT department have further developed our IT infrastructure and achieved connection to NHS.net
following the completion of 18 months’ of development work.
Our Education department has increased the number of patients who are accessing education and
patients achieved significant success at examinations with a 100% pass rate for 44 patients involved.
Our therapies department have reviewed individual and group programmes to include further
offence related therapy groups, functional skills groups and recreational groups.
Our Eco-Therapy department has expanded its activities with patients and growing of produce has
been of particular interest to patients.
Nurse Therapy together with other members of the clinical teams have introduced a full DBT
programme and skills groups.
Our Training department has overhauled our induction and refresher training programme and have
continued to support staff in further education including the Alpha Diploma.
OT and Nursing took the lead in developing STAR wards for each of the three wards in Sheffield and
they were delighted to announce in the third quarter of 2010, that we achieved all the objectives set
and we are now fully compliant with all requirements for STAR wards on all three wards to the
highest standard (Full Monty).
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The Accident/Incident Report for the six monthly review January to June 2010 recorded that the
total number of accidents/incidents for the time period was down significantly by almost a third for
the same period in 2009. This reflected good risk management at Alpha Hospital Sheffield. It was
felt that overall the multi-disciplinary teams and staff on all three wards were working well and
managing the risks presented by our Low Secure patients and Locked Rehabilitation patients well
and no significant weak points or deficits were noted. We reviewed July to December 2010 in
January 2011. The number of accidents/incidents were less again than the number recorded for the
previous six months of 2010 and more than a third down on the figure generated for July –
December 2009.
Alpha Hospital Sheffield Clinical Staff and Senior Management Team are proud to report that there
were no incidents of Seclusion recorded on any of the three wards at Alpha Hospital Sheffield during
2010.
In October 2010 Alpha Hospital Sheffield organised and facilitated a conference titled “Concepts and
Theories Assessment and Management of Personality Disorder Over Decades”. Our Medical Director
was proud to introduce Professor W. John Livesley, Editor Emeritus, Journal of Personality Disorders
British Columbia, Professor Nigel Eastman, Professor in Law and Ethics in Psychiatry, St. George’s
University, London and Professor Conor Duggan, Editor, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and
Psychology, Leicester, UK. The conference was very well attended and the feedback was
unanimously positive.
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