NHS sends vulnerable adults to private hospital accused of abuse

Vulnerable adult patients have been sent by the NHS to a private hospital after it closed its children’s service just weeks ago following abuse allegations, The Independent can reveal.

Joyce Parker Hospital in Coventry, run by private hospital giant Cygnet Health Care, was accused by Care Quality Commission of failing to protect child patients from physical abuse by staff, following an inspection this summer.

A letter leaked to The Independent revealed inspectors saw CCTV evidence of staff “dragging” children around while restrained.

Cygnet Health Care, on which the NHS spends hundreds of millions of pounds for mental health beds, closed its children’s service in September following the allegations.

Weeks later the service reopened as a service for male adults and The Independent can reveal local NHS commissioners have already placed patients in the hospital, despite the previous abuse allegations.

Deborah Coles, chief executive for charity INQUEST, which has represented families of patients who’ve died in care, said: “This recycling of services, despite damning criticisms, is a loophole that needs to close.”

This is at least the second time Joyce Parker Hospital has reopened as a new service after the previous service was criticised by regulators. In 2020 it reopened as a hospital for children with mental health needs, after closing its service for women with eating disorders, following a critical report by CQC inspectors in 2019.

In August The Independent revealed a CQC warning to Cygnet, sent on 8 August, that it was concerned that staff were physically abusing patients.

The letter referenced CCTV footage, seen by the CQC inspectors, that included one incident where a patient was restrained by staff and dragged backwards along the floor.

In this footage, seven staff followed two patients into a bedroom and up to seven staff members were seen dragging one of the patients out and putting them on the floor in the corridor.

Recent NHS data on out-of-area placements, which records the number of mental health patients sent far from home to hospitals, shows Cygnet Health Care cost the NHS £4.3m between April 2023 and April 2024, for 150 patients.

Four Cygnet Health Care hospitals – Bury, Sherwood Lodge, Wyke and Blackheath – were the most expensive over the same period for out-of-area placements when compared to all other NHS or private hospital units.

Last year The Independent revealed how another private provider, Huntercombe Hospital Group, had made plans to reopen its scandal-hit children’s hospital for adults in Maidenhead. However, the provider then closed the hospital entirely.

Health secretary Wes Streeting previously told The Independent it was right that Joyce Parker Hospital had closed its children’s service.

The DHSC declined to comment on the admission of adult patients.

Cygnet Health Care was approached for comment.