Children’s hospital where staff ‘dragged patients across floor’ to close as parents warn of ‘brutal’ treatment

A hospital where staff allegedly physically abused patients is set to close as parents come forward describing the “brutal” treatment of their children, The Independent can reveal.

Joyce Parker Hospital, a children’s mental health unit run by Cygnet Health Care in Coventry, will shut following allegations by the national care watchdog, first highlighted by this publication, that staff were found dragging patients across the floor.

Parents of children who are in the unit, whose care is NHS-funded, have been told this week that Cygnet Health Care intends to shut and reopen the hospital for adults just weeks later.

Multiple patients and parents have come forward with allegations of poor care since The Independent’s exposé in August.

“From day one, it’s been really brutal,” said the mother of a teenage girl still in the hospital. “She [daughter] was covered in bruises. She was really distressed. I keep thinking this is my child, who is really unwell, and you trust people will look after her. She’s been pushed against walls, had her arms put around the back, she’s been put on the floor. My daughter is so much worse than she was when she got there.”

Have you worked or been treated at this hospital and have a story? email rebecca.thomas@independent.co.uk

The closure comes after The Independent revealed a leaked letter from the Care Quality Commission to the hospital warning inspectors had allegedly found CCTV footage from May 2024 of staff dragging children across the floor while restraining them.

The watchdog told Cygnet Health Care it was concerned that the evidence suggested physical abuse of the patients while staff were restraining them. Cygnet Healthcare said it “strongly refutes” the CQC’s claims of abuse.

Another mother, whose son was at the hospital from August 2022 to February 2023, alleged that he was “dragged on the floor by his feet” out of his room by workers. She also alleged her son was not able to leave the ward and go into the garden for two months due to a shortage of staff in the unit.

“It was all very new to us, very new to him, and he just found it all so traumatic,” the mother said. “One time [in response to a self-harm attempt] he was dragged from the room by his feet. He was taken to another room, past other young people on the ward, and held down in the chair with quite heavy restraints into his shoulders.

“I raised concerns about it. I complained to the directors, and they gave us someone to deal with that complaint, and they said there wasn’t sufficient CCTV.”

She added that after another incident more traumatic than the restraint ordeal her son made a serious attempt on his life while he was meant to have been checked every 15 minutes. She said he is now having trauma therapy as a result.

A former patient, Demi Grinsell, now 19, was in the hospital’s Pixie ward in August 2022. Ms Grinsell alleges staff would allow her to seriously self-harm in front of them. In one incident she described being restrained by multiple male nurses despite her health records maintaining that she should only be restrained by workers of the same sex due to previous trauma.

“I can’t even count how many times I did that [self-harmed] and, obviously, that would then lead to restraints, not full-body restraints, but them just trying to get it off me,” she said. “But there was in my notes that it was only females that were supposed to be allowed to do that. Still, males were allowed to restrain me and put their hands on me, which made me a lot worse.”

Despite only being in the hospital for two months Ms Grinsell claimed she emerged in a worse mental health state than when she was admitted.

“After coming out of the hospital, I continued to harm myself but it was because of things that had happened there,” she added. “I couldn’t get out of that cycle of repeatedly hurting myself.”

Joyce Parker, previously a hospital for women with mental health conditions, was placed in special measures by the CQC in 2019 following the death of 25-year-old patient Claire Greaves the year before. An inquest found insufficient staffing levels likely contributed to her death. Following the 2019 CQC report, Cygnet reopened the hospital as a children’s service.

The NHS pays Cygnet Health Care tens of millions of pounds each year and it is one of the biggest providers of inpatient mental health care to the health service.

A spokesperson for Cygnet Joyce Parker Hospital said: “After careful consideration, we have made the decision to change the services offered at the hospital and to discontinue our Child and Adolescent Mental Health provision at the site.

“The hospital remains open as we make these changes and our immediate priority is to continue supporting the young people in our care. We will work with our partners, including commissioners, CQC, service users and their families, to ensure each patient has a smooth transfer to a new setting, best suited to their individual needs.

“We remain committed to providing the highest standards of care at Cygnet Joyce Parker Hospital in the future and continue to strongly refute any allegations of abuse that have been made.”

A spokesman for the NHS added: “Cygnet Healthcare has announced that it intends to close the CAMHs service at the Joyce Parker Hospital.

“The NHS will be working with Cygnet to find suitable alternative placements for the nine young people who remain at the hospital.”

A CQC spokesperson said:“We have robust registration systems in place to ensure only those applications that demonstrate an appropriate model and quality of care are granted. We must be satisfied about their fitness and compliance with the requirements of the relevant regulation and enactments to grant registration.

“We monitor and inspect services to check they are providing safe high-quality care and they are meeting the fundamental standards. Where inspectors identify concerns or evidence that people may be at risk of harm, we will always follow this up and have a range of enforcement powers we can use to protect people.”

If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.