Extreme pressures on mental health services mean there are long waiting lists for treatment and patients are placed in hospitals outside their own area in South London.

But despite this the mental health trust which covers Croydon has been rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) serves 1.3 million people across Lambeth, Lewisham Southwark and Croydon.

But inspectors have raised concerns,  rating it as ‘Requires Improvement’ for safety.

The report published this week (July 29) shows that bed occupancy is at more than 100% capacity on most wards, meaning it might not always be possible for patients to be managed safely.

More than 300 patients were also placed in hospitals outside of the area where they live in a nine-month period.

The report, following inspections in April and May states that there were “some safety issues” particularly on the acute inpatient wards that needed to be addressed.

Inspectors found long waiting lists at the Croydon assessment and liaison team, which deals with community based mental health services for adults.

The team was not able to meet the 28-day target for non-urgent referrals with a waiting list of 550 of these cases.

This is an issue that the trust has raised with the Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) which commissions health services for the borough.

Dr Paul Lelliott, deputy chief inspector of the CQC said there have been improvements since the last inspection but he would like to see some issues addressed.

He said: “Patients are still affected by the ongoing extreme pressures on the acute care pathway. Bed occupancy remains above 100% on most wards, which meant staff might not have been able to manage the care of patients safely.

“There was not always a bed available for someone who needed one. The trust had placed 300 patients in out-of-area beds between February 2018 and December 2018.”

But at Croydon Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit a 10-bed unit for men with severe mental health problems there have been improvements.

At a previous inspection in July last year patients described some staff as disrespectful and not showing care for them.

In the latest inspection however patients told inspectors they are treated with kindness and compassion.

Beverley Murphy, director of nursing at SLaM, said: “This is a very positive result and only possible because of the hard work of both front line staff and all those who provided support to ensure that improvements could be made. We are proud of our staff and we are grateful for their continued commitment.

“Although there is more still to do to improve in the safety domain, we have shown over the last year our ability to deliver significant improvements and we are confident that we can make the changes we need. Most importantly, the improvements we have delivered have made a real difference for the people who use our services.”

She said that areas the trust will now focus on include staffing and staff engagement, care plans and risk assessments for patients and making sure people can access the right treatment at the right time.

Ms Murphy added: “With the 2019 investments in mental health we have a great opportunity to develop the very best quality community services and inpatient care, driving improvements.

“We will continue to embed borough-based working for local services. We will  avoid admission into hospital and when admission is necessary we will work with service users, carers and families to keep admissions focused and actively plan good care in the community to support people to return home.”