{"id":348737,"date":"2026-01-02T20:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/348737\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T20:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:40:09","slug":"the-mental-health-unit-where-patients-feel-unsafe-and-are-told-to-stop-crying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/348737\/","title":{"rendered":"The mental health unit where patients ‘feel unsafe’ and are told to ‘stop crying’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mental health hospital in Oldham has been told to do better.\"TheThe psychiatric unit where patients ‘feel unsafe’ and are told to ‘stop crying'(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

A private mental health unit where patients were given out of date medication and a distressed woman was told by staff to \u2018stop crying\u2019 has been ordered to improve. Cygnet Kenney House on Wester Hill Road, Oldham<\/a>, was given a warning by government watchdog CQC for failing to meet regulations related to safe care.<\/p>\n

In a report published recently by CQC, the provider was told it \u2018required improvement\u2019 in its care and management and had \u2018inadequate\u2019 safety standards.<\/p>\n

In two wards, CQC inspectors observed that some prescribed medications were unavailable for over a week and one patient was given out-of-date drugs. The report noted problems with staffing levels, responsiveness to incidents and medicines management.<\/p>\n

The report noted: \u201cDuring the assessment we found that the provider did not have enough suitably qualified, competent, skilled, and experienced staff deployed to keep service users safe and to meet the needs of service users.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CygnetCygnet Kenney House in Oldham (Image: Google Maps)<\/p>\n

The Harben ward, a high dependency rehabilitation ward for women with seven patients, was also slammed for its \u2018inadequate\u2019 staffing levels and slow responses to incidents. Patients told inspectors they \u2018did not feel safe\u2019 on the ward and that staff \u2018seemed too busy to talk\u2019.<\/p>\n

Assessors also found that staff responses to patients \u2018were not always helpful\u2019, with one employee recorded as telling a distressed patient \u2018stop crying, you are making me sad\u2019.<\/p>\n

In the Baldock ward, which provides acute treatment to up to 16 women, and the 12-bed Billington ward, an intensive care unit, staff were not keeping track of food and fluid intake properly and were put on observation shifts for longer than recommended.<\/p>\n

Two of the seven patients the inspectors spoke to said staff didn\u2019t respond quickly when they were distressed or needed help, and another said she\u2019d waited over three hours to be taken on her leave. Three patients said staff treated them well and behaved appropriately towards them.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe private hospital is working on improving. (Image: Google Maps)<\/p>\n

Jennifer Healey, the hospital manager for Cygnet Kenney House, said: \u201cThe safety of our patients is our highest priority, and we take the delivery of safe care extremely seriously. Following the CQC inspection, we put in place a comprehensive improvement plan with a particular focus on managing ligature risks, strengthening medicines management, and enhancing staff training. These improvements were implemented immediately after the regulator advised us of their concerns in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe service was rated Good in both the Effective and Responsive domains, reflecting the quality of care being provided in those areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to demonstrating clear and sustained progress at the next inspection.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mental health hospital in Oldham has been told to do better.The psychiatric unit where patients ‘feel unsafe’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,2438,26995,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-348737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-oldham","12":"tag-oldham-council","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}