A York eating disorder clinic which was placed in special measures earlier this year has turned around its fortunes after being rated 'good' in all areas.

And clinic bosses today said they were "proud" of the achievement by staff, who had achieved an "incredible journey of transformation".

Schoen Clinic York, in Haxby Road, was rated 'inadequate' following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in January 2022.

The watchdog said patients were at the risk of physical and psychological harm because their needs, including dietary needs, were not always met.

However, the CQC has now published its findings following a fresh inspection in November this year.

It said improvements were found across all areas and the hospital was now rated as good overall, as well as good for being safe, caring, responsive, effective and well-led.

Sarah Dronsfield, CQC head of hospital inspection, said: “We welcome the significant improvement the service has made across all areas and staff have obviously worked hard to achieve this outcome.

“Leaders have addressed the issues we previously highlighted and we found it was providing a much better service for people.

“For example, staff helped people live healthier lives by supporting them to take part in programmes or giving advice. The occupational therapy team prescribed an eight-week programme on meaningful life skills which patients gave positive feedback on.

“People told us staff were kind and respectful and that they had the opportunity to be involved in the service and their care planning. They were also pleased they could give regular feedback and felt listened to by managers.

“Schoen Clinic York has made good progress in improving the standards of care for people. We continue to monitor the service, and it now needs to ensure these improvements are embedded and sustained.”

The latest inspection found that:

• Staff developed holistic, recovery-oriented care plans

• The ward teams had the full range of specialists required to meet the needs of people on the wards

• Staff treated people with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity and understood their individual needs

• The service managed beds well

• The service was well-led and ward procedures ran smoothly

• The ward staff worked well together as a team and with those outside the ward

• The ward environments were safe and clean.

Schoen Clinic UK managing director, Andy Davey, said: “Schoen Clinic York has been on an incredible journey of transformation.

"Following their last CQC inspection, we appointed highly experienced and well-respected Mental Health Hospital Director, Adam Bloor.

"Adam, along with our fantastic clinical team has led the service into a whole new era of clinical excellence, quality and service improvement.

"I congratulate every member of the team at Schoen Clinic York for delivering a safe, effective, caring, well led and responsive service to our patients and our commissioners.”

Rachel Matthews, director of mental health at Schoen Clinic UK Group, added: “We are so proud of the team at Schoen Clinic York for this achievement. We are delighted to be able to say that all Schoen Clinic facilities in the UK are now rated by the CQC, as either outstanding or good.”