Isle of Wight NHS Trust cuts number of mental health patients

Isle of Wight NHS Trust has been in special measures since 2017

An NHS trust has removed hundreds of adult mental health patients from its books, a watchdog has found.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) issued a warning notice to Isle of Wight NHS Trust in May 2019 over staff workloads and other issues.

It said the number of community mental health patients had since reduced from 1,700 to 925 in December.

The NHS trust said it had moved some patients to a new independently-run wellbeing service.

It said it had set up the service, called the Isorropia Foundation, with a third sector provider to help patients with appropriate needs.

The trust said the reduction in both caseloads and waiting lists for treatment was "positive news" but there was a "lot of work still to do".

'Two-year wait'

The CQC found patients had previously "remained on staff caseloads after they were ready for discharge".

It said the caseloads had since reduced to a "safe size", from 35 patients or more each in May to 25 each.

The report continued: "The average waiting time for psychological therapies had reduced from two years to one year, although team members did tell us that some patients had still been waiting two years."

The CQC said patients' risk levels were now regularly reviewed.

Overall, it said mental health services had met the requirements of its warning notice but staff morale remained low.

It said this was partly because of the "pressure" workers were under.

The commission said it still classified the mental health service as "inadequate" and "unsafe", because a focussed inspection could not change an existing rating.

The NHS trust, which has been in special measures since 2017, had its overall rating of "inadequate" upgraded to "requires improvement" in 2019.