A drug rehabilitation centre in Elephant and Castle has closed down after a watchdog found it could not look after patients properly.
Brook Drive was given the worst possible rating of “inadequate” in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report published last week.
The 26-bed facility, which treated people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, was found to have “admitted clients with serious and significant physical and mental health problems, which the service could not safely provide care and treatment for.”
Brook Drive had previously been served two warning notices by the CQC, concerning safeguarding and governance.
There was also no psychiatrist working in the service, despite the fact that a previous CQC inspection in July 2021 had banned the centre from admitting new patients until one was found.
Managers said they couldn’t afford the salaries demanded by applicants, despite advertising the job for six months.
Other failings identified by the CQC were that “staff did not have an understanding of safeguarding” and only some had the necessary qualifications to safely treat clients.
No single document or system for managers to have oversight of staff mandatory training existed, according to the report.
However, the CQC praised staff for treating clients with “compassion and kindness.”
“Staff were supportive, developed good relationships with clients, and treated clients as individuals,” read the report.
“Clients said that staff were very helpful and understanding,” it added.
Eighty per cent of clients completed treatment and had a planned discharge from the service
The report found that 13 clients had been transferred by emergency ambulance from the service to the hospital, since the beginning of 2021.
Staff had twice delayed calling an ambulance, although the situation was an emergency.
“Sadly, after providing a much-needed community-based residential detox service since 1991, we took the difficult decision to close Brook Drive’s doors for good in January 2022,” said a spokesperson for Equinox Care, which ran Brook Drive.
“We were unable to meet the clinical expectations recently set by the CQC following their inspection of us back in July,” they added.