'Sewage smell' at mental health centre

The Care Quality Commission highlighted outdated wards at the Warneford Hospital in Oxford

A mental health trust has been criticised for taking more than a year to fix a leaky roof that led to the smell of sewage in a bedroom.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust was rated as "requires improvement" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The watchdog raised concerns about the quality of risk assessments, staff training and long waiting lists for some services.

But it rated 10 of the trust's 15 core services good and one as outstanding.

Updates on this story and more from Oxfordshire

A trust spokesman said the sewage smell had been a "teething problem" with the new Whiteleaf Centre in Aylesbury.

He added: "It was clearly unacceptable and we have apologised to the patient affected."

'Positive messages'

The report highlighted other improvements needed for services to be "consistently safe and effective".

These included a lack of basic life support training for administrative and reception staff.

But it also praised the trust's "very effective out of hours provision for young people who may be in crisis" and its work with other agencies.

Trust chief executive Stuart Bell said there were some "very positive messages" in the report.

He added: "The vast majority of the areas for improvement were things we recognised and had plans in place to address."

The trust provides health and social care to people in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes, Berkshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.