A private hospital famed for its use by celebrities is failing to correctly manage medicine administration and provide a safe premises.
The Priory Hospital, Priory Lane, Roehampton, cares for patients suffering with mental health problems such as addiction, eating disorders and depression.
But a recent inspection carried out by the care quality commission (CQC) found the hospital was failing in several areas.
The report, published on August 8, found patients felt cut out of decision making, while management was criticised over its prescribing of drugs.
Inspectors visited the East Wing for women with personality disorders, the West Wing for people with addictions and Priory Court where people are treated for eating disorders.
Patients said they were forced to fill in an overwhelming amount of paperwork when admitted and were not involved in key decisions.
Inspectors failed the hospital for its management of medicines, while the safety of the building was marked unsuitable due to a lack of anti-barricade doors in the East Wing.
The report said: “Medicines were not always prescribed and given to people appropriately.
“We saw from the prescription charts supplies of medicines and medicine protocols we looked at that gaps in good practice when added together could be contributing to medication errors and people’s medicines may not have been administered as intended by the prescriber.”
Staff were also judged to not be meeting standards, with the report claiming there are not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people’s needs.
However, the inspectors found the Priory was meeting standards in care and welfare, safeguarding and consent to care.
A spokesman for the hospital said: “We experienced an unusually high demand for the hospital’s services during the summer months.
"This necessitated the temporary deployment of more agency staff than usual.
"The hospital embarked on a recruitment drive, which has already resulted in significant numbers of experienced and specialist staff joining the team. We have now tackled the small number of issues highlighted by the CQC report.”
Celebrities such as Kate Moss, Lilly Allen and George Best have received treatment from the Priory Group in the past.
Patients can seek treatment for a number of mental health problems ranging from shopping addiction to problems with binge eating.
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