Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust 'still requires improvement'

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust is spread across 26 sites and serves about 1.4m

There are "significant concerns" over "patient safety and privacy" at an NHS trust, the healthcare regulator said.

An inspection of Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found 37 breaches and rated it as "requiring improvement".

More positively, staff were found to be "kind and motivated to provide the best care and treatment possible".

A trust spokesman said staff and managers would "work tirelessly" to make further improvements.

While dental services were rated "good", worries were expressed about parts of mental health crisis services.

The CQC said the trust's overall "requiring improvement" rating remained unchanged after the inspection in May.

'Detained too long'

Other issues highlighted by the CQC included:

• Some mental health patients being detained too long in places of safety

• Restrictive interventions being made without appropriate legal safeguards

• Concerns over governance regarding health-based places of safety and mental health units

• Inaccurate or incomplete information on patients remaining in places of safety and mental health units

Trust chief executive Caroline Donovan described the report as "disappointing" and apologised for the fact that some issues identified in a previous inspection remained.

She promised staff would "work tirelessly to make the required improvements as a matter of urgency".

Ms Donovan said she was delighted her trust had been received some "good" ratings.

In May a critical report by Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria revealed hundreds of mentally ill patients had been treated many miles away due to bed shortages.

And earlier this year, a Blackpool Council official raised concerns about the level of assaults in a hospital run by the trust.