A HEALTH trust criticised for a third time has “failed to act quickly” to improve the quality of its care.

Health service regulator Monitor issued the statement after Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust’s facilities at Evenlode, for people with learning disabilities in Sandford Road, Littlemore, were criticised in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) report.

Details on the problems were not initially available, but yesterday it was revealed an inspector from the CQC found the design of doors at a seclusion unit in Evenlode gave staff “an inadequate field of vision”, leading to a patient hurting himself.

Paul Streat, regional director at health sector regulator Monitor, said: “The trust has failed to act quickly enough to improve services in Oxfordshire and must get the right processes in place to ensure action is taken to fix problems quickly.”

Southern Health has also been criticised for the facilities at Piggy Lane care home in Bicester and at Slade House in Headington, where Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, died.

Lesley Munro, Southern Health’s divisional director for learning disability, said work to rectify the CQC’s concerns was under way and was due to be completed “imminently”.