CQC takes action on The Causeway Retreat

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said today it has taken action to ensure that The Causeway Retreat, on Osea Island in the Blackwater Estuary, Essex, has stopped providing people with treatment for which it is not registered under the Care Standards Act 2000.
Frances Carey, CQC’s East region director, said: “We have been gathering evidence since October last year about the services provided at The Causeway Retreat and our inspectors have made visits to the island.

“We believe that The Causeway Retreat has provided services as an independent hospital, including medical treatment for people with mental health needs. Such services would legally require the establishment to be registered with CQC.

“On 26 April we wrote to those we believed were carrying on the services, asking them to discontinue those services.

“They gave us a written assurance that from 9 May all the current patients would have left the island, and that there would there be no doctors or nurses involved in providing registrable services. They also stated that from then on they would be providing only services that do not require registration, such as counselling for people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction.

“We will continue to take any necessary steps to ensure that the law is complied with, including unannounced visits.”

Ms Carey said The Causeway Retreat LLP has submitted an application to CQC to be registered as the provider of an independent hospital on Osea Island, and the commission is currently considering this application.

She went on: "We have received information in the past few days that Twenty 7 Management Ltd, which we believe to be the principal organisation involved in The Causeway Retreat, may have gone into liquidation. We are looking into this as part of our wider enquiries, which include the roles of Mr Brendan Quinn and his wife Mrs Lisa Quinn, the two directors and shareholders in Twenty 7 Management Ltd."