Portsmouth council stops sending patients to Addiction Recovery Centre rehab service

Leader Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson said: '˜Ensuring residents get safe and effective care is a top priority for us, especially when they're trying to deal with the challenge of beating substance addiction.

'˜We commission the Society of St James (SSJ) to provide substance misuse support in the City and they run the Recovery Hub where people can access prescribing services, one to one and group support and counselling. Residents can also be assessed for detox and rehab services here.

'˜The Addiction Recovery Centre is a private organisation and not one that the council commissions or runs. SSJ have very occasionally referred residents to this centre for residential detox and rehabilitation, but stopped doing so immediately when made aware of their poor inspection.'

The council made a safeguarding visit to the centre in Cosham.

Cllr Vernon-Jackson said; '˜We also informed the Safeguarding Adults team so that they could undertake a safeguarding visit. We have a number of alternative providers for residential detox and rehabilitation so there was no negative impact from not being able to place people with the Addiction Recovery Centre.

'˜We would expect any provider to take prompt action following a negative CQC report so it's positive to see that the Addiction Recovery Centre voluntarily stopped taking clients and made a number of improvements, which the CQC noted in their follow-up inspection in November.'