A care home where residents are at 'risk of pain and neglect' could be shut down after failing to make enough improvement since being placed in special measures last year. Stamford House, in Rochdale, is still 'inadequate' in several areas - including infection control, pain management and nutrition - according to the latest inspection report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The Kingsway home - which cares for up to 23 people aged over 65 - has now been in special measures for nine months. The CQC usually gives adult care services a maximum of 12 months to make the necessary improvements before taking action to close them down. Officials, who visited the Stamford Street facility in May found it was adequately staffed and there had been ‘significant improvements’ to training since the last inspection.
But they also noted that the home was still in breach of numerous regulations, including that residents were still not always receiving high-quality personal care. For example, care plans did not always include risk assessments for people's health conditions - including Alzheimer's, diabetes, epilepsy and alcohol abuse.
“This is an ongoing issue from the last inspection,” the report reads. "The provider had failed to ensure staff provided people with individualised care which met their needs. This placed people at risk of harm.”
Residents were also at risk of experiencing pain and neglect, officials added. “People were not always given their pain relief medicines when they were prescribed,” the report continues.
“On one occasion this was because there was no supply of the medicine in the home, for another person their pain-relief patch was re applied late and therefore not in line with the prescription.”
The manager was said to be unaware of the issues until officials raised concerns. "The provider had failed to ensure systems and processes were in place and being followed to prevent abuse of people and that these processes operated effectively,” inspectors noted. This was a continued breach of care regulations.
Residents and their families spoke positively about staff, commenting that they were ‘brilliant’, ‘great’ and ‘very good and understanding’. But officials also found that people ‘were not always treated well and with dignity’ - a cupboard containing people's care plans was left open and accessible and staff were discussing people's medication with the pharmacy on their personal mobile phone via WhatsApp.
Inspectors were 'not able to see' any improvement to the 'unsafe' recruitment practices noted at the last inspection - and the home remained in breach of regulations in this respect. And while residents ‘spoke positively’ about food at the home - one describing it as ‘marvellous’, the watchdog found people’ s nutritional needs were not always considered.
There were also some concerns about the food being provided leading to a referral being made to the environmental health team. This included out-of-date food in the kitchen and the cellar/store room and various items of food that were not dated when opened, ‘presenting a risk that they were not being stored and disposed of in line with manufacturers advice’.
There was also a question mark over whether all necessary checks had been conducted to ensure food ‘met a safe temperature during the preparation process’.Some improvements had been made to the condition of the home, but inspectors noted ‘further concerns’ at this inspection, meaning regulations were still being breached.
The report also noted shortcomings in cleanliness and infection prevention. “The environment was not always clean and there were gaps in cleaning records,” it states.
However, adequate stock of personal protective equipment (PPE) was in place and staff were being tested. Responding to the report operations director Joseph Sabapathy said the ‘comfort and safety of the service users’ was of ‘paramount’ importance to the home.
He said: “Since the CQC inspection in November 2021, Stamford House has continued to invest in environmental improvements which are now complete, other areas covered are training , staffing, enhancement of electronic recording system and also working closely with the families and professionals towards providing assurance.”
He added: “Since the last CQC audit, the home had engaged an in-house management consultant to support the home along with a third party being engaged to undertake periodic independent assessment of the home in-line with the regulatory requirements.
“The provider is confident that the measures implemented by the home will enable all issues addressed will be resolved to the satisfaction of the regulators. The home is closely working with the local authority and other professionals towards ensuring that the care provided to the service users in the home are meeting the need and beyond.”
The CQC says it will now work with the local authority to monitor progress at the home and keep the service under review. Special measures are usually in place for no longer than a year. Should the home fail to make the necessary improvements the CQC will take action in line with its enforcement procedures.
This means it will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service - usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.
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