"URGENT improvement" is needed at a Surrey hospital caring for patients with dementia.
Health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has issued three formal warnings to Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust over the state of Willow Ward, at Woking Community Hospital, following an unannounced inspection in January.
During the visit, inspectors found the facility did not meet any of the four national standards which were reviewed, including 'Treating people with respect and involving them in their care', 'Providing care, treatment and support that meets people's needs, 'Caring for people safely and protecting them from harm' and 'Staffing'.
The CQC has called for immediate action to protect patients on Willow Ward, which provides continuing care for dementia patients.
During the inspection, officers reported seeing staff chatting to each other rather than engaging with patients, a lack of planned activities and a missing shower curtain which the CQC had been assured would be replaced.
This is the second time these failings by the Trust have been highlighted by the CQC, but following an initial report in August 2013, the Trust claimed it had a new action plan to resolve the issues.
Paul Lelliott, deputy chief inspector for the CQC, said: "Despite assurances from the Trust following our earlier visit that the action plan would be in place, and that the service would be compliant in November, our return visit in January showed that care at Willow ward was still not of a good enough standard.
"We issued warning notices, and we hope that the Trust will now take action and make the improvements which are required and which should have been made before the end of last year. We will continue to follow this up and our inspectors will return to assess the ward again."
