The Ty Llidiard mental health unit at the Princess of Wales Hospital is being supported by Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board after it was raised to the highest “escalation level” (Level 4) during July 2021 over concerns about safety and leadership.
Ty Llidiard is a specialist Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) unit that opened in 2011 and was extended in 2015. While run by Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, it accepts patients from across south Wales.
A report discussed by Cwm Taf Morgannwg’s Quality & Safety Committee (pdf) said the unit was previously put in in Level 3 escalation in March 2018, but this summer it was raised further to Level 4 “based on the failure of the unit to resolve its on-site emergency response arrangements and also new stakeholder feedback in relation to the culture and leadership on the unit.”
An inquest into the death of a patient at Ty Llidiard in 2018 is due to take place in January 2022, while two other inquests are pending.
Despite this, the report says that improvements have been made since a Healthcare Inspectorate Wales report in 2019. Windows have been maintained to improve privacy and patient safety, while some key staffing vacancies have been filled.
The number of young people waiting for treatment after assessment in the health board area – a long-standing problem in the Welsh NHS more generally – also fell from 500 to 100.
The report notes an increase in referrals for eating disorders. This is creating difficulties in balancing that work with that of looking after other high-risk patients due to a shortage of low and medium-security mental health beds across the UK.
