The Huntercombe Stafford Hospital

The Huntercombe Stafford Hospital 2021-09-21 Person 5 5 0

My son went to Huntercombe Stafford Thorneycroft ward for 3 months after ending up in crisis, he wanted to go in voluntary. The team have been fantastic and the support and therapy have helped him get out of crisis in safe environment. We were kept informed regularly and the team answered questions quickly when needed. I know being an inpatient isn't for everyone but in this case it really helped us get out of a crisis and keep my son safe at the same time. I would recommend this hospital.

The Huntercombe Stafford Hospital 2019-11-24 Person 1 5 0

My daughter spent two years on Hartley ward with Anorexia Nervosa and BPD (or EUPD as it is termed here); it was two years of sheer hell. I've rated one star because there are some wonderful permanent staff on the ward who really showed compassion for my daughter. However the rest of the organisation and management definitely rate zero. The heavy reliance on agency staff who regularly fall asleep on 1-1 observations, the continual use of heavy handed restraint that left my D bruised and battered all over and the punitive regime are all shocking but the main concern is the unqualified child psychiatric consultant This hospital only takes patients commissioned by the NHS. To be qualified to be called a child psychiatric consultant in the NHS a doctor must be registered on the GMC Specialist Register, be a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, hold child psychiatric qualifications and have at least 4-6 years specialist experience. Dr Shaheen Chaudhry, the lead child psychiatrist at Huntercombe Stafford, has neither of the accreditation criteria and this leads to doubt on qualifications. The ethics of the NHS sending patients to hospitals where the consultants don't meet their criteria is murky compounded by the hospital claiming him a consultant. In the two years my D spent here we, as parents, were regularly left uninformed as to incidents of self harm and my D was constantly drugged up on a cocktail of brain altering neurotoxic anti-psychotics. At one stage she was on Haloperidol for over a year and exhibiting severe side effects that I noticed and researched. It was only when I raised the issues that Dr Chaudhry even acknowledged the effects. Whether he noticed before and did nothing or was unaware of them is immaterial, his complete lack of response until I raised the issue was shocking. I have many photos of bruising caused by restraint carried out by 4-6 people on a young girl who weighed little over 50kg. The regime was incredibly restrictive when D first arrived. After a while we were able to convince them that a mobile phone to stay in contact with us, we live 170 miles from the unit, would help and they very slowly relented until it proved so. She was given no eating disorder specialist help in her time there despite there being an eating disorder ward in the hospital. All they did was maintain her by force feeding, often under restraint, and then fail to adequately deal with the effects of guilt and self punishment that inevitably followed. The ward was often understaffed and this lead to staff often being unable to deal with D's self harm following feeds. When her self harming behaviour was especially severe she would be on 1-1 constant observations to prevent her harming or worse. These were regularly ineffective due to the staff member assigned falling asleep. I have photographic proof of this and can confirm at least two agency staff have had their agency told they are not to return. In her time there we were informed that one agency nurse worked there whilst under NMC suspension. This leads me to believe that the checks on agency staff are inadequate. Words cannot adequately explain what a horrendous place this is, the complete lack of constructive therapies, activities and lack of professionalism displayed by many staff. If Huntercombe Stafford is mentioned as a hospital for your child I would vociferously object and push for a community care package. This hospital didn't help my daughter in any way, in fact she left worse mentally after two years of abuse and isolation from society. I'm not sure any of them help.

The Huntercombe Stafford Hospital 2015-12-19 Person 2 5 0

Don't go . Seriously think of your child's /loved ones /yourself . Patients are made worse. Ask for another placement ........

The Huntercombe Stafford Hospital 2014-05-28 Person 2 5 0

Don't go !

The Huntercombe Stafford Hospital 2012-03-18 Person 4 5 0

Brilliant care. Fantastic staff (not counting agency) I was looked after really well here even when I was horrible to staff because of my mental illness.