Patients have been kept indoors Accident and Emergency wards for up to three weeks, watchdogs have found.
People going through a mental health crisis had to endure the delays in an area without natural light as the services struggled to cope deal with the question.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said Royal Sussex County Hospital staff reported the longest time spent in the emergency room’s “short stay” area was three weeks.
NHS targets say ED patients should be admitted, treated or fired within four hours. But the goal has not been reached since 2015.
Confidence data shows that such patients spent more than two days in the ED on average.
It said the hospital’s emergency and emergency services – part of the University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust, rated “excellent” by the regulator – “did not fully meet the needs of the local population”.
Emergency and emergency services – which were inspected after concerns were raised with the CQC – were downgraded to “requires improvement” from “good” as a result of the latest inspection.
‘Continuing Needs’
The inspectors found that staff were unable to protect the privacy and dignity of patients who stayed on the ward for weeks.
“Due to the nationwide shortage of mental health beds, patients entering the emergency room must have a mental health crisis were often accommodated for several days and in some cases for two or three weeks in the short-stay section of the unit,” the report said.
“While some action had been taken to meet the needs of these patients, such as providing a mental health liaison service and employing institution-registered mental health nurses, the service was not planned to meet the ongoing needs of these patients.
“The environment of the short stay areas was not supportive effective care for patients housed there, including patients with mental illness,” said the inspectors.
Carolyn Jenkinson, chief of hospital inspection for the CQC, said: “We have identified several areas in the emergency department that trust needs to address urgently.
“Patients were often housed in non-clinical areas, including hallways, that failed to protect people’s privacy and dignity. It was also deeply concerning that short-stay areas were not providing effective care for patients housed there, including those with mental illness.”