Care homes in Anfield have come out of special measures but still have work to do to improve, according to health inspectors.
Earlier this year, Abbey Lawns Care Home and St Domingo Grove were placed under further scrutiny by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after a litany of failures at the North Liverpool care facilities. A report into Abbey Lawns on Anfield Road said residents were “not always safeguarded from the risk of abuse” and “Staff did not have an emergency evacuation plan to follow and they were unclear of their roles in the event of an emergency, such as a fire”.
In March, St Domingo Grove, run by Gracefield Healthcare, was slammed by the CQC for its "totally unacceptable" conditions. But as well as the state of the facilities, inspectors were also told by a resident that a member of staff had "verbally and physically" abused them, concerns which had been ignored by a manager.
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Fresh inspections at both locations have now taken the homes out of special measures but still require improvement. At the time of its follow-up visit, St Domingo Grove had six people in residence, where support was provided for those with a learning disability, autism and those with mental health needs.
Its second report said: “At this inspection we found improvements had been made to some aspects of the service, however the provider remained in breach of one regulation.” The panel of officials found governance processes were not always effective at improving the quality and safety of the service and identified “shortfalls with the system to record and analyse incidents and found care plans still contained some inconsistent, contradictory and missing information.”
However, infection prevention and control procedures were managed more effectively and we found the home was clean and hygienic throughout. Observations found that the environment was more appealing and better met people's sensory and physical needs.
Further improvement was found at Abbey Lawns, where the responsiveness and effectiveness of the location were deemed to be in good order, compared to the inadequacy identified during a visit in January. At the time of the second inspection, 34 people were being housed at the Anfield Road facility.
The report said: “A number of identified improvements had been made since our last inspection however, further improvements were still needed. We identified some issues in relation to the safety and cleanliness of the environment, recruitment and the provider's systems for checking the safety and quality of the service.
“We have made a recommendation regarding the provider's governance systems. The manager immediately acted on some of the issues we found during the inspection.”
The CQC said it will will request an action plan from St Domingo Grove to “understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety”. Inspectors said: “We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Gracefield Health Care said: “We at Gracefield Health Care Ltd are very pleased to confirm that, following a further inspection from CQC during August 2022, we are no longer in Special Measures. A tremendous amount of work has been undertaken throughout 2022 to reinstate governance processes and to improve practice beyond the standards achieved before the covid pandemic.
"We are grateful for the commitment shown by our staff team, residents, their families and other professionals who have contributed throughout this journey and helped us to make significant changes to all aspects of our service during this difficult year. We thank you all.
"We will continue to strive to improve further and offer the best possible service to our residents, their significant others and to the professionals involved in their care.” Further information will be monitored in terms of the progress at Abbey Lawns.
The ECHO contacted Abbey Lawns for comment.
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