The NHS Trust has faced a turbulent few years
Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust was ranked 58 out of 61 non-acute trusts nationally(Image: MEN)
A mental health trust in Greater Manchester has been named among the worst in the country. Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) has been ranked 58 out of 61 non-acute trusts across the country as part of a new ‘league table’ initiative.
The new rankings published on Tuesday (September 9), evaluate acute, non-acute and ambulance trusts across England, looking at financial performance, patient access to treatment and surgical waiting lists as well as A&E delays and ambulance response times.
One trust in Greater Manchester – The Christie NHS Foundation Trust – ranked third nationally in the league table for acute trusts which provide hospital-based care offering services such as A&E, inpatient and outpatient treatment and surgery, and specialist care.
Meanwhile, North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, which covers Greater Manchester, was the top-rated of its kind in England.
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However, GMMH, was the fourth lowest ranked of the 61 non-acute trusts – which provide long-term care – across the country. It comes after a turbulent few years at the mental health trust mired in controversy since allegations of patient abuse were exposed.
Shocking findings were revealed in a BBC Panorama documentary in 2022 which showed patients being abused by staff in the trust’s Edenfield Centre – an inpatient mental health facility on the site of the former Prestwich Hospital which has recently been renamed.
Before that episode aired, the Manchester Evening News had been reporting on the unsafe understaffing of those mental health services and how trust failures had been cited in court as contributing to the tragic deaths of people supposed to be under its care.
GMMH has long been criticised by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – the health watchdog which rated some of its services ‘inadequate’ last year – and has been the subject of investigations by the Good Governance Institute, NHS England and GMP.
The mental health trust has now been ranked among the lowest in the country in the national league table for non-acute trusts.
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Chief executive Karen Howell said: “GMMH continues to be in the Recovery Support Programme, so the published position is expected however, we have solid plans in place and are continuing to make improvements to move us from recovery into business as usual.
“Professor Oliver Shanley OBE is currently conducting the second part of his Assurance Review, which we are welcoming and supporting to ensure he is well-sighted on the changes we have made across the Trust.
“We are committed to improving our performance and will continue working with our service users, their families, our staff and partners to build on the positive changes already made to create the conditions in which our staff can deliver care safely and our service users receive high quality care.”