Diss: Mental health hospital will close after critical report

St John's House has room for 49 men and women with learning disabilities

A mental health hospital has been closed after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection discovered a high number of safety incidents.

St John's House in Palgrave, near Diss, had previously been rated inadequate and placed in special measures.

A further inspection in July found it had not sufficiently improved and admissions should remain restricted.

The Priory Group, which runs the hospital, said closing it was "the most appropriate course of action".

The 49-bed hospital, which cares for adults living with learning disabilities and associated mental health issues, was put in special measures in December 2020 following an inspection that raised concerns about patient safety, incident management, staffing and the use of restraint.

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The latest inspection found insufficient progress had been made regarding patient safety, staffing, risk management and adherence to patient care and risk needs.

The CQC said that due to the serious level of concerns found, it would be maintaining previous conditions which had been placed on St John's, including restricting admissions.

Self-harming concerns

Stuart Dunn, the commission's head of inspection for mental health and community services, said the July inspection had found "an unacceptable service where insufficient improvements had been made to protect patients from harm and abuse and the number of safety incidents remained high".

He said staff were not responding appropriately to patients who were self-harming, with one patient not being sent to hospital quickly enough after swallowing a foreign object.

Inspectors also found staff had fallen asleep when they should have been observing patients, while incidents of restraint were high despite not all staff not being properly trained.

The inspection also found the hospital was short-staffed and heavily dependent on agency workers, while male staff were often placed on female patient observations.

Mr Dunn said the hospital's failure to refer all instances of abuse and thoroughly investigate concerns had "put its patients at prolonged risk of harm".

A Priory Group spokesman said the decision to close the unit was not "taken lightly".

He said: "Despite our best efforts and substantial investment, St John's House continued to suffer from significant recruitment difficulties stemming from the nationwide shortage of specialist nursing staff for learning disability services.

"As such, it had become increasingly challenging to meet the needs of the people we look after and over the last two months we have worked diligently with all stakeholders to find appropriate alternative provision for service users."

The hospital said only two patients now remain there.