The dangers of using an unregistered center.Ensure the centre you use is registered: or else!

April 30, 2024

3:59 pm

Unregistered rehabilitation centre

In an ideal world, everyone in the sector only has the best interests of clients to heart. There is nothing wrong with making a profit, otherwise private services would not exist. However, it is imperative that those services are both legal and safe. Thankfully, it is very rare that a service operates under the radar or is closed down by the appropriate authority: The Care Quality Commission https://www.cqc.org.uk/ This is no more clearly demonstrated than by the activities of two rehab centers in Liverpool: We Do Recover and We Can Recover. A long and complex story, which makes for very disturbing reading. We Do Recover, which is still advertising, was set up as a community interest company. This is not a charity but very similar. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/woman-who-wanted-help-people-26268564 In other words: Do not use an unregistered centre. The center was aimed at those who were unable to afford mainstream private centers due to cost, yet was very slightly more expensive than other private services. However, that was not the issue! https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/woman-who-illegally-operated-drug-26730902 With We Do Recover, the owner simply did not wait until she had obtained registration with the Care Quality Commission. Because of this, there were serious and untoward incidents that took place. Thankfully, after a long and protracted investigation by the Care Quality Commission, the owner was successfully prosecuted. The owner, on behalf of We Do Recover , entered a guilty plea but, as an individual, entered a not guilty plea. In her defense, the owner tried to claim that she did not know that she needed to be registered. This was despite having another center that was registered and being refused registration on initial application (this is not unusual). The owner was fined £60,000 as well as being struck off as a company director for a number of years. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-rehab-boss-disqualified-company-26985922 No one, is in anyway, suggesting that the owner set out to cause harm to anyone. However, it is clear that people were put at very significant risk. As mentioned, the owner had another center: We Can Recover. This was registered with the Care Quality Commission but was not opened for sometime. When it did finally open in late 2022, it was closed down, less than eight weeks later. This was due to very serious concerns raised by both patients and staff. Again, no one is suggesting that the owner had any intention to cause harm. However, the subsequent repots from the CQC indicate that, despite the very best intentions of the owner to raise the standards, for whatever reason, the service has closed. https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/1-10326706025 . The precise reasons as to why the service closed are not known, but the entry on the CQC register now shows the service as archived https://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/1-10326706025. A report, published by the CQC, points to some very serious issues at the center which appeared to be insurmountable. https://api.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/reports/f0ff4560-145e-4bad-881a-61d15f23d4f1?20230606070054 No one is suggesting that any of this was intentional, aside from knowingly providing a regulated activity without regulation, but the consequences have been very profound. Someone now has a criminal record and two buildings, that provided services, are out of commission.

The dangers of using an unregistered centre
Unregistered rehabilitation centre