Physical Healthcare of Inpatients in Mental Health Hospitals

This study has been commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership
as part of the Clinical Outcome Review Programme into Medical & Surgical care, as part of the current contract awarded in 2015
For information on how we use data click here

Data collection for study: commenced February 2020- please note we are still accepting data collection spreadsheets
Publication date:       Summer 2021 (TBC)  

Please note that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, activity on this study was temporarily suspended.
Data collection for this study is currently ongoing, with clinical and organisational questionnaire out for completion.

Aim: To identify and explore remediable factors in the physical healthcare of adult patients admitted to an inpatient mental health facility.

Objectives:

Organisational:

To review the provision of services, organizaional structures and the policies in place to facilitate the physical health needs of this group of patients. Focusing on:

 
• Assessment and monitoring
• Treatment
• Support for patient and carer involvement
• Timely escalation
• Access to appropriate expertise/services
• Discharge-planning
• Mechanisms to support continuity of care
• Communication
• Medication
• Training
• Application of the Mental Capacity Act

Clinical:

To identify and review remediable factors in the overall quality of care provided, particularly focusing on:

• Access to physical health care
• Communication
• Inappropriate or delayed interventions and/or escalation of care
• Missed opportunities to intervene in patients at risk
• Management of medications
• Care planning for safe discharge
• Asessment of capacity and consent
• The overall standard of care and treatment provided

Participation:

All inpatient mental health hospitals in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man, where patients are receiving healthcare for a time limited period for a primary mental health condition with expectation of discharge to an alternative setting.

NB. Please see the study protocol for more information.
We will be asking all acute general Trusts/Health Boards to submit a data collection spreadsheet to help us identify patients who have been transferred from a mental health hospital to an acute general hospital.

Data collection:

Data collection spreadsheets were disseminated in February 2020 to all inpatient mental health hospitals and all acute general hospitals. Due to the suspension of non-essential clinical activities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study is running with a delay.

Study protocol:

The study protocol can be downloaded from the Download Links section on the right.

Clinician Questionnaires

The clinical questionnaires for this study have been disseminated online via the online system, please log on to manage questionnaire returns. The scanned/photocopied extracts should be returned to NCEPOD in secure freepost envelopes (provided on request), or scanned and sent by email (in a password protected file) to ncepod@nhs.net

Organisational questionnaires:

The organisational questionnaires for this study have been disseminated online via the online system, please log on to manage questionnaire returns. Organisational questionnaires will be sent to all Mental Health Trusts/organisations to elicit variation in the provision of physical health services within individual hospital units. In addition to those hospitals taking part in the clinical review, it will also include specialist commissioned mental health services. For this study there are two organisational questionnaires:

Trust Level-for each Mental Health Trust/ Health & Social Care Trust/ Local Health Board. The majority of the data will be collected through this questionnaire, as we want to minimise the burden especially for the large multi-centre Trusts/ Health boards.

Hospital Level-for each inpatient mental health hospital site within the Trust/ Health board. For the Hospital-level form, we have listed all the inpatient hospital sites that we are aware of but we may have missed some. Please let us know if this is the case.
Please email phmh@ncepod.org.uk for further information.

Online and anonymous Surveys for Clinicians and Patients

Patient / Service user survey:
If you are aged 18 or older, and have had an inpatient admission to a mental health hospital and also have a physical health condition or received physical health care whilst an inpatient, please complete this short anonymous survey about the physical healthcare you received.
https://ncepod.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5ilwTua7nNfOgGq

Carer Survey:
If someone you care for has had an inpatient admission to a mental health hospital and also has a long-term physical health condition or received physical health care whilst an inpatient, please complete this short anonymous survey about the care they received.
https://ncepod.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1AnEE3JQUpcRW8S

Clinician Survey:
Anonymous survey for healthcare professionals working in mental health trusts/ health boards about their level of training, confidence and competence in supporting the physical health needs of the patients they care for.
https://ncepod.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8f8qicbkU7cxBLU

Definitions:
Please click here for the study definitions.

Further questions about the study may be directed to:phmh@ncepod.org.uk