AN independent psychiatric hospital that specialises in eating disorders for children and young people has been told to improve its standard of care.

The Huntercombe Hospital at Uphall in West Lothian was rated good quality for environment, staffing and leadership but adequate for quality of care and support by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)inspectors.

An unannounced inspection resulted in four requirements related to providing "rapid tranquillisation" medicine and six recommendations, including introducing a system of monitoring staff who give medication, all of which inspectors said should be "priority".

Susan Brimelow, chief inspector at HIS, noted patients said staff were approachable but added: "We have identified a number of important areas for improvement. These include ensuring patient physical health is monitored after the use of rapid tranquillisation and that adequate documentation is in place to support its use.

"The standard of care planning also needs to be improved to ensure identified patients needs are correctly addressed."

A hospital spokesman said: "This was overall a positive report. There was no inadequate or poor rating. The inspectors suggested some areas of our operations where improvements should be made. We have implemented improvements to address the recommendations."