THE mother of a "traumatised" patient at an independent hospital has accused its former authorities of failing provide information and an apology after its registration was revoked suddenly.

Sara McBride has hit out at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and ASC Healthcare who managed the Breightmet Centre for Autism which had urgent action taken against it by the health watchdog earlier this year.

Her 20-year-old son, who has severe autism, challenging behaviour and learning difficulties, had been a patient at the Milnthorpe Road-based centre from January 14 this year, until the revocation of its registration.

However, the standard of treatment he received caused Ms McBride to be so concerned that she contacted the CQC as a whistleblower to alert them to issues around her son's and other patients' safety.

Ms McBride, who had to travel from the family home in Gloucestershire to visit her son, said:"The whole experience was absolutely horrendous.

"I am absolutely traumatised and so is he. His behaviour has gone off the scale."

After being moved out of the Breightmet Centre for Autism in June, Ms McBride's son is now in his fourth different mental health hospital.

His mum is now calling on ASC Healthcare to observe and the CQC to enforce Regulation 20 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

These rules require healthcare providers to inform people about incidents, provide reasonable support, provide truthful information and an apology when things go wrong.

Ms McBride said: "We are not fully informed on what has been going on and I would like the CQC to enforce Regulation 20 so parents are given a proper explanation and apology.

"If Regulation 20 was enforced this place would not be able to reopen because parents would be aware."

A spokesman for ASC Healthcare said:

The CQC declined to comment.

This follows a protest staged outside the Breightmet Centre for Autism by relatives of former patients, held on October 25.

The action had been organised by Joanne Murphy whose 22-year-old son was a patient at the centre between 2016 and 2017 and who has has echoed Ms McBride's calls.

Ms Murphy said that the protesters had received a good response, adding: "I hope the protest will have raised awareness but this is not going to be our last one.

"I am going to be planning more. That is the next step."

Last month the CQC published the first of two reports following an inspection of the hospital in June. Inspectors rated the centre “Inadequate” in all areas in a report detailing a litany of concerns.

Since July, management of the site has been taken over by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust who are working with ASC Healthcare.