A mental hospital serving people across south west London has received a glowing review from a health watchdog.

Springfield Hospital, in Tooting, is celebrating after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) described its services as ‘safe and well-led’ and found staff were compassionate.

The only concerns noted in the report were assessing and managing people’s safety after a patient, using the service, was able to stand and jump from a window ledge during the CQC inspector's  visit which began on March 17

The report, published last week, praised staff saying they were caring and had a good approach to patient care.

David Bradley, chief exec of the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, said: "We are grateful to the inspectors for their root and branch examination of our services and for recognising the excellent work provided by our caring and professional staff.

"The inspection was tough but very fair and gave us the extremely valuable opportunity to examine the services we provide and look at how we can make them better for patients, carers and our staff."

Your Local Guardian: David Bradley CEO of South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust

Proud: Chief exec David Bradley 

The hospital trust has had recent controversies including the escape of a paranoid schizophrenic, who stabbed a stranger 20 times, absconded from the unit in March and a patient who killed themselves on a hospital ward also in March.

Mr Bradley added: "I am proud of what our staff have achieved and we will never be complacent in making our services better. We are very aware that there is a great deal of work still to be done and we are ready to meet the challenges ahead."