Our HSCP’s mental health wards have been praised by the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWCS) for their high quality care and high standard of care planning.

Balmore and Banff Wards at Glasgow City Health and Social Care (HSCP)’s Leverndale Hospital were visited by the MWCS in February 2025.

The report is not yet issued but the feedback from the Commission Team was extremely positive. In recognition of this excellent practice, nominations have been submitted for the wards to the 2025 National Awards for Excellence in Mental Health Nursing Practice, held later this year.

Balmore Ward provides 18 beds to care for older people with dementia, Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. Banff Ward is a 20 bed unit that provides care for older people with illnesses such as depression, anxiety, psychosis or bi-polar affective disorder.

The MWCS has a key role to protect and promote the human rights of people with mental illness, learning disabilities, dementia and related conditions. In addition to meeting with people who use the service, the Commission also speaks to staff and visitors.

The Commission Team fed back that “considerable work has been undertaken to continue to provide high quality care and maintain the high standard of care planning since our last visit. The staff should be commended for this.”  

They were particularly impressed with the ongoing work around management of stress and distress and further development of the flashcards highlighted in last year’s report to a new ‘five things to know about me’ document.  

This document displays important information about a patient with dementia so that new staff in the ward can quickly familiarise themselves with the essential needs and interventions for the patient. This information can be displayed at the patient’s bedside alongside the ‘what matters to me’ board.  

The development of Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) links with the Community Teams in Discharge Planning and Complex Case Reviews was also noted to be encouraging as well as improvement in the quality of information recorded.

Pauline McCulloch, Service Manager in our HSCP’s South Locality said: “This is outstanding feedback from the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland. The recognition of the simple but extremely effective interventions, excellent leadership and positive atmosphere in the ward is high praise, and all of the staff should be extremely proud of this initial feedback. I look forward to the publication of the report, and good luck with the nomination to 2025 National Awards for Excellence in Mental Health Nursing Practice.”
 

Marie Hattie, Nursing Officer for MWCS said: “It was a very positive visit and we were very impressed with the enthusiasm and focus on good person-centred care that we saw.”