Covantry staff saw children pulling patients in children’s hospital

BBC News, West Midlands

According to the Health Watchdog report, employees in the children’s hospital were caught misusing patients in CCTV footage.
Inspectors of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found three cases, where children were physically abused by employees at Coventry’s Cowantry Signet Joyce Parker Hospital.
The report stated that the children told the employees of the inspectors that “sometimes tilt their wrist” or they hurt “their knee”.
The hospital said it “strongly denied” any allegation of misconduct and the police ended the investigation about the safety of cases. The BBC has contacted the West Midlands Police for the comment.
The hospital run by Cygnet Health Care Limited has changed its use since inspection and now only provides services to adult male patients.
The report after the CQC’s visit to the 43-Bad Mental Health Unit in July stated that inspectors reviewed the CCTV footage for three cases of restraint, where children were physically abused by employees.
“The staff was seen pulling children and youth during these incidents,” he said.
“To review all three events, there was no clear risk for the need for restraint presented by the young person.”
He said that there was no evidence of employees trying to increase the situation before stopping the children.
The report stated that the footage identified 12 members of the employees as “passive buyers”, who did not raise concerns.
Four of the seven children said that they “did not feel safe in service”.

on September, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said The decision to shut down the service of children was “right one” and the allegations of misconduct on the unit are called “really shocking”.
At that time, the hospital accepted “improper utilization of restraint during very difficult circumstances”.
The CQC said that three warning notices were sent to the hospital to fail to fulfill the rules related to misuse during restraint cases.
Despite its changes in its use, CQC stated that the hospital was still able to provide mental health services to children and adolescents.
The hospital has been given status as a “need for improvement”.
A hospital statement stated that it “strongly denies any allegations of misuse”.
“We will continue to work transparently to demonstrate our commitment to maintain high standards of care and will be ready for the publication of the most recent CQC inspection, which took place in October 2024,” said a spokesman said.
The hospital said that police and local security officials stopped their investigation into several security incidents and no further action would be taken by the organizations.